Dark Doyle

Over the weekend our good friend Anna Thurlow, great-granddaughter of Mina "Margery" Crandon, shared with me some letters written to Dr. Le Roi Crandon during the famous Margery-Houdini seances. One letter written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on August 27, 1924, contains this surprisingly dark sentiment:

"Something will happen to that man H. You mark my words. Better to get between the metals when an express is due, than block the way of the spirit."

We tend to think of Doyle as the creator of the virtuous Sherlock Holmes, but he was also the creator of all the dastardly murderers from those stories. He could go there! It's hard not to see this as a veiled wish that harm come to Houdini, if for no other reason than to prove this existence of avenging spirits. Although the idea of Houdini being pushed in front of an express train seems more like a tactic a person would employ than a spirit.

Dark Doyle indeed.

Want more? You can read the full letter as a member of my Patreon.

Thank you, Anna!

Related:

• Conan Doyle did not believe a punch killed Houdini
• When Houdini threatened to sue Doyle
• Sir Arthur say what?

Houdini's nurse and a new case for murder?

Over the holidays I was privy to some new information, backed by documentation, that has me re-examining my long-standing skepticism when it comes to the question of whether Houdini was murdered. I now believe there is a possibility Houdini was a victim of foul play. But before I get into it, let's look at the problems I've always had with past murder theories.

Past theories

Houdini died from streptococcal peritonitis, an infection caused by leakage or a hole in the intestines. In Houdini's case, his appendix had ruptured, either because of a blow to the stomach or a case of appendicitis that was not treated in time (not debating that here). Before the discovery of antibiotics, peritonitis was almost always fatal, and it was for Houdini who died on Halloween 1926.

Most of the Houdini murder conspiracies have focused on the possibility of poisoning. When the now infamous exhumation was proposed in 2007, the reason was to test for poisoning. But as I understand it, there is no poison that can cause appendicitis.

To get around this inconvenient medical fact, murder theorists must shift to a post-operative poisoning. They claim Houdini's own doctors conspired to murder him, and in his final days injected him with a toxic mystery serum. (This despite the fact that he would have died from peritonitis anyway.) None of this is fact based. It's pure conspiracy theory that might make for good television, but it's bad history. As for the idea that J. Gordon Whitehead was a "ninja" who knew exactly how to deliver a "death blow" to Houdini...well, if you believe that one you should be running the History channel.

Poisoning possibilities

Now, I have no problem believing Houdini had enemies who wanted to see him dead. His campaign against fake spirit mediums was getting hot in 1926. He was provoking both criminals who feared for their rackets and religious fanatics who felt he was driving a wedge between the human and spirit world. Certainly among these people would have been individuals dangerous enough to cause Houdini harm.

I also have no problem believing they might have tried. While in Providence, Bess came down with a bad case of ptomaine poisoning after a meal at the Waldorf Hotel. There are also reports of Houdini appearing ill before the punch from Whitehead. So is it possible a cabal of spiritualists were spiking Houdini's food at every opportunity? Maybe not enough to kill him, but enough to make him ill and cancel his tour? Yes, I think that's absolutely possible.

But all this doesn't mean anything because, again, there is no poison that can cause appendicitis. So here we are back facing a medical fact that doesn't allow us to move forward on any fact-based murder theory. And that is why I have always been a skeptic.

Then I had a conversation with William Rauscher.

Enter Houdini's nurse

William V. Rauscher is a name that most will be familiar with. He is a reverend, magician, paranormal investigator and the author of many books, including a biography of Arthur Ford, The Man Who Talked With The Dead, a recent book about Hardeen, and The Houdini Code Mystery. He even did a guest blog here on WILD ABOUT HARRY. Bill Rauscher is a legend in the world of magic and the paranormal. So when a mutual friend, Tom Ewing, suggested I give Bill a call to learn the details of an amazing meeting he had many years ago, I was happy to! Here's the story Bill told me.

In 1973, Bill gave a lecture on Houdini at the 5th annual Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship retreat at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. After the lecture he was approached by a woman who was excited to speak with him as she had first-hand knowledge of Houdini's final illness. Her name was Helen Mable Bacon (maiden name Costello) and she was a student nurse at Grace Hospital when Houdini arrived there in 1926. In fact, she was in the operating room!

Helen shared a handful of recollections, such as that Houdini "kidded a bit when he was brought in for surgery." Bill typed up notes on their conversation and shared those notes with me. They consist of seven paragraphs. Some of the information is familiar, some of it is new. But it was this sentence that really caught my attention:

Mrs. Bacon recalled that he had in addition to his ruptured appendix a ruptured pancreas.

Wait, in addition to a ruptured appendix, Houdini had a ruptured pancreas??? This I have never heard before, and if we accept her recollection as accurate, it's an entirely new medical fact to work with.

Now, I'm not a doctor and I admit I'm just going off what I can find online, but a ruptured pancreas can cause peritonitis in the same way as a ruptured appendix. So if Houdini had a ruptured pancreas, this would have contributed to his fatal infection. But what causes a ruptured pancreas? Let's ask Google!

So it's conceivable that Whitehead's blows (abdominal trauma) could have caused the rupture. But people have enough trouble believing Whitehead's blows could have ruptured Houdini's appendix. To believe it ruptured both his appendix and pancreas is an even further stretch, ninja or not!

But also notice that pancreatitis can cause a rupture to the pancreas. This seems more plausible. I also found a 2016 case report from the Digestive Disease Research Centre at Tehran University of Medical Sciences that suggests appendicitis can be "a complication of acute pancreatitis." So if Houdini had a ruptured pancreas, it is conceivable that his root illness was actually pancreatitis.

Here's the obvious question. Can poison cause pancreatitis? It doesn't take much of a Google search to come up with that answer:

So here we have a path, paved with medical evidence, that Houdini's final illness could have been brought on by poisoning. Had I known about this in 2007, I might have felt very differently about the proposed exhumation. Arsenic was one of the poisons they were going to test for as traces of it can be found in bones and hair.

I'm sure you all have the obvious questions. Why would Houdini's death certificate not mention his ruptured pancreas? I don't know. Are there any hospital records that say Houdini had a ruptured pancreas? No hospital records survive, so we don't know. Why has no one mentioned this until now? Actually, Bill Rauscher did mention this on page 114 of his book The Houdini Code Mystery, a book I read on release in 2000. But at that time I didn't grasp the significance, and I'm betting it slipped past others as well.

I should also note that when Bill told me about his meeting, we didn't talk about murder. For Bill, the existence of this nurse was the real story. I'm the mad man who picked up on the ruptured pancreas as a revelatory piece of information. I should also point out that in his book Bill says he doesn't believe Houdini was murdered, "though a few careful students of the subject disagree."

So there we go. We now have a theory that doesn't involve homicidal surgeons, mystery serums, or ninjas. It's a theory based on an eyewitness and supported with medical facts. I'm not arguing for it. I just wanted to lay it out as best I can. Unless we again want to talk about exhumation, this may only be another theory that can never be proven. But it is one I can get behind.

Want more? William Rauscher has graciously given me permission to share his original notes from his meeting with the nurse on my Patreon, so you can read all she remembers about her encounter with Houdini in October 1926. I've also included some assorted research. This is for "Scholar" members and up. Just click below.

Thanks to Bill Rauscher and Tom Ewing for making WILD ABOUT HARRY a bit more wild today!

Related:

• The mystery serum
• Time to bury the Houdini exhumation
• Bill Rauscher on Arthur Ford and the Houdini Code

The mystery serum

It's the lynchpin of the Houdini murder conspiracy. The story goes that in final days of Houdini's life, when he was showing improvement, a shadowy outsider, sometimes identified as Dr. George Lefevre, came in and administered a mysterious serum. This caused Houdini's relapse and death. Clearly murder!

Hollywood is a chief offender here, with The Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum literally reenacting the scene with a mysterious black clad figure creeping into Houdini's room with a syringe. Watch out Harry! He looks French Canadian!

But here's an article that ran 96 years ago today that injects a little reality into the story of the mystery serum.

Baraboo Daily News, Oct. 27, 1926

This article shows that the serum was administered by Houdini's own doctors right after his operation. It was not administered by an outsider and not in the final days. Furthermore, this article states that Dr. George Lefevre was not even in Detroit when the serum was used. He came later in the week to report on the serum's effects. 

It is true that the serum was experimental and we don't know what was in it. But I expect it was a cocktail of ingredients believed to fight infection in this world before antibiotics. It also may have helped. Houdini did show some improvement by Thursday and his temperature dropped below 100 for the first time. But he relapsed the following day and a second operation was performed for paralysis of the bowels. That operation was not successful and, as we know, Houdini died on Halloween.

I know this isn't as sexy as murder. But I'm willing to let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Related:

• Mysteries at the Museum murders Houdini
• Did Smithsonian land a punch or poison the well?
• 85 years ago: Houdini rallies!

Did Smithsonian land a punch or poison the well?

By now those who are interested have probably watched the Houdini episode of The Curious Life and Death of... which aired last week on the Smithsonian Channel. Typical of these shows, it offered a salacious blend of pseudo-history, conspiracy theories, and insinuation, coupled with lots of ominous music to tell us how serious all this is. And why drag poor Bess into it!? It's also important to point out that George Hardeen did not "file a petition" to exhume Houdini's body in 2007 as the show claims. This was a publicity stunt organized by others and a serious error on the part of the writers of this episode. [If you want to dive back into all that, check out my related link below.]

However, there is still plenty to enjoy here. I'm a sucker for the graphics these shows cook up (such as the one that tops this post). The host, Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris, seems nice and appears sincere in her work. Author Joe Posnanski did a great job being the key interview for Houdini's biography. And we see some nice photos and film clips.

The episode also featured an interesting piece of Houdini history that struck me as new. (I've since learned it was discussed in the comments of this post at HHCE.) Apparently, Houdini was injured doing a straitjacket escape at a charity show in the summer of 1926. This is presented as the first of the series of unfortunate events that would end in his death. We see two on-screen sources for this accident, the first being part of a newspaper story:

The second source is a letter by Gertrude Hills written to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on November 22, 1926. Hills closes with a mention of this same accident:

If you do not know what caused our friend's death, you will be interested to learn that he injured himself this summer while presenting for charity his straight jacket act. The injury was not taken seriously by himself, or his physician, I imagine, since the pain resulting from it was diagnosed as forms of "indigestion."

Unfortunately, the show didn't specify when this "summer" charity show took place, and I have no match in my chronology. But I'm reminded of this post which suggested Houdini was under the care of a physician during a charity event in September 1926. Related?

Something else that struck me as new was the mention of a "high society spiritualist" named Madame Marcie who accosted Houdini after his D.C. hearing, predicting he would be dead by November. This nugget of info is dropped by the show's crime expert, former detective Brian Hook, who delivers many of the show's more salacious assertions, such as his belief that Bess may have killed her husband for the insurance money. Oh my.

Okay, but what of the show's core premise that Houdini might have been murdered?

While I do not believe the age old claim that Houdini's doctors poisoned him with experimental serum, I'm not averse to the idea that Houdini could have been slipped arsenic or some other poison by fanatical spiritualists on one or more occasions. Of course, evidence would be nice. Right now there's only speculation. But I don't find it impossible and I'm open to any serious investigation. Heck, I'd even support exhumation if some new evidence compels it. (Curiously, the show didn't mention Bess's attack of food poisoning, which is the one place I see smoke.)

So as far as advancing the murder theory, The Curious Life and Death of... provides nothing new and maybe even sets things back by flogging silly conspiracy theories. But as a dose of superficial yet entertaining Houdini-themed TV, it gets the job done.

You can stream The Curious Life and Death of... on HULU, iTunes, and Amazon Prime.

Related:

• The Curious Life and Death of...Houdini, Sunday
• Time to bury the Houdini exhumation
• Decoding Decoded

The Curious Life and Death of...Houdini, Sunday

Houdini is the subject of the Smithsonian Channel's new series The Curious Life and Death of... this Sunday at 9PM. The show is hosted by Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris. The promo below gives a taste of what to expect.

This master illusionist could escape anything…well, almost anything. Did appendicitis kill Harry Houdini—or was he murdered? Host @DrLindseyFitz is on the case. Tune in for #TheCuriousLifeandDeathof…: Harry Houdini this Sunday at 9PM. https://t.co/nipfs6MtAk pic.twitter.com/dLnimnh3Sb

— Smithsonian Channel (@SmithsonianChan) October 2, 2020

I'll hold my opinion until after I see the show, but I am disappointed to see the focus on the murder theory, which has been done to death! But host Lindsey Fitzharris looks ready for business.

The Curious Life and Death of... airs on the Smithsonian Channel. If you don't have cable you can stream episodes the following day at HULU, iTunes, and Amazon Prime.

Related:

• Decoding Decoded
• Mysteries at the Museum murders Houdini
• Time to rethink the rethinking on the Houdini punch

Mysteries at the Museum murders Houdini

The Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum once again featured a segment about Houdini. The episode titled "Scared To Death" aired last Wednesday (Feb. 27). It can be watched on YouTube.

Unfortunately, the series, now in its 24th season, seems to be running out of ideas. They've turned to the old murder/poisoning conspiracy theory, and do a pretty sloppy job with even the basic facts (he performed "for several weeks" after the punch?). But on the upside, we get to see our friend Dorothy Dietrich and the Houdini Museum in Scranton.

By my count this marks Houdini's seventh appearance on the show.

Related:

• 'Mysteries at the Museum' uncovers Houdini and the con woman
• Mysteries at the Museum reveals "the real ghostbusters"
• 'Mysteries at the Museum' rings Margery's bell box

Decoding Decoded

Harry and Bess Houdini were thoroughly slimed last night on an episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded called "Houdini: Murdered?". There literally wasn't a minute of this hour long show that didn't include some kind of exaggeration, glaring inaccuracy, or out-and-out falsehood. Of course, people will dismiss this as "just TV" (like that's a small thing), but it made me feel sick, especially the conclusion from one of the show's "detectives" that Bess Houdini murdered her husband.

The show revived and super-sized all the hokum that surrounded the release of 2006's The Secret Life of Houdini, with the show stars uncovering "evidence" that Houdini worked as a spy and was possibly murdered, maybe even by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle! The whole spy malarkey (which I thought had gone away) received a surprising amount of play in the show, with Brad Meltzer doing all he could to prove that Houdini was the 007 of his day. It's sexy, but silly, and especially ridiculous to suggest, as Meltzer does, that Houdini's "spy work" may have "cost him his life".

One bit of sanity came from former deputy CIA director John McLoughlin, who said while it's plausible Houdini reported back to William Melville ("M") of Scotland Yard about what he saw in Germany and Russia, "it's a little too much to say, based on the evidence that we have, that Houdini was a spy" and it's "a stretch to say he was providing secrets that would have been so sensitive as to provoke someone into doing him harm." Bravo Mr. McLoughlin!

It's a shame this sensible assessment of Secret Life's controversial theory didn't come from one of the several Houdini experts interviewed, who by and large played into the sensationalist tone of the show, or were at least edited to appear they were doing so. I felt that Lance Burton was particularly sandbagged here.

Curiously cut from the show was an interview with Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brookz of the Houdini Museum in Scranton, who had provided provocative new information about the dressing room assault. According to Dorothy and Dick, Houdini's lawyer, Bernard Ernst, manipulated the affidavits of eyewitnesses Jack Price and Sam Smiley to make the incident seem more accidental than it really was. This was to ensure Bess received a double indemnity payment from Houdini's life insurance policy. They also say Bess paid Price and Smiley $200 for their efforts (!). You can read their notes here.

Instead, this information came via an interview with magician (and escape artist?) Joshua Jay. While at first I suspected that the show had passed Dorothy and Dick's research to Jay to "reveal" in his own interview (which wouldn't surprise me considering the slippery ethics on display in this show), it appears some of this info can be found in published sources, so maybe Jay came up with it on his own. However, the veracity of all this is still highly questionable, and nowhere is this tied to any kind of a "murder" plot. But accurate sourcing and the truth certainly didn't seem to burden the Decoded crew, and for Scott Rolle, a former DA and now one of the Decoded "detectives", this was the smoking gun.

During the show's wrap-up (filmed at The Magic Castle), Rolle concluded that Bess must have murdered Houdini. Yes, you heard me right. Bess murdered her husband of 33 years. His "evidence" was the affidavit monkey business ("She paid people to lie about what happened that night") and the fact that Houdini had an affair with Charmain London (he failed to mention that it happened 10 years earlier). The show helped support his theory with the completely fabricated claim that Bess was a "rising star" when Houdini met her, but that he snuffed her career. Said Rolle, "If I was a prosecutor in the case, I would open a case on Bess."

Wow. And this guy was a DA? If this was seriously his conclusion, maybe we need to look back at some of his real cases! But I suspect Rolle was just reciting his script. But, again, where are the ethics in all this, History Channel?

While the Bessie claim was tempered by the other detectives concluding that Houdini wasn't murdered (Buddy Levy, in the end, was given the task of articulating the obvious), I was sad to see all this garbage added to the soup of Houdini mythology that I'm now going to have to deal with, well, forever. As we've all learned, these things don't go away easily (how many people still think Houdini died in the Water Torture Cell because of a movie made in 1953?). Also, I would hope that the Blood family (Bessie's family) would have some legal recourse against this show and The History Channel for claiming their relative was a murderer. But I'm sure in the great tabloid tradition, Brad Meltzer's Decoded is protected from its own tidal-waves of slanderous misinformation.

Houdini collector and expert Arthur Moses (not interviewed), shot me this email after the show, saying, "I thought I was going to be ill after just the first five minutes...but I forced myself to watch it through to the end for the comedic value. Best novelistic agenda I've seen since viewing Disney's 101 Dalmatians. Where did they come up with these ideas??? The only premise held true the entire program was Houdini's own story-telling technique of never let a good story be told by including the facts."

All in all, I thought this was a shameful defamation of Bess Houdini, a sleazy and irresponsible piece of exploitation on the part of Brad Meltzer and The History Channel, and a real embarrassment for Houdini buffs. Brad Meltzer's Decoded slimed us all.

Time to bury the Houdini exhumation

Back in March 2007 the AP broke the news that the family of Houdini (reportedly represented by George Hardeen) was going to exhume the body of the great magician to investigate the possibility that he was poisoned. This was an old murder conspiracy theory championed as credible in the 2006 biography The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman.

So what happened? It’s been two years and Houdini still rests in his grave. Unfortunately, the truth of this event is now as murky as the poisoning theory it was meant to dispel.

The authors assured me as of last year that it was sincere and was in the hands of the lawyers. I’ve no reason to doubt them. The popular media, on the other hand, has largely concluded that it was just a publicity stunt.

The Washington Post was the first to suggest something was rotten in their coverage of the March 24 news conference. Held at the American Jewish Historical Society, the paper noted "it was impossible to take a photo of the event without including a blown-up copy of the cover of The Secret Life of Houdini hanging being the news conference principals." A little digging by the paper revealed the media spectacle was not orchestrated by the family of Houdini, but was organized and paid for by the authors in conjunction with the PR firm Dan Klores Communications.

As time wore on, the authors said legal issues were delaying the exhumation, which seemed credible after the Hinson-Blood family and members of the magic community raised objections. “We want to do this the right way,” Sloman told the Daily News. “We don't want to offend anyone.”

But that same article revealed that the parties involved never filed legal papers to preform an exhumation, and that George Hardeen had pulled out, saying, “I am not intimately involved in this.”

Now, two years later, all the parties have gone quiet.

So what happened here? Was this a sincere attempt to investigate a controversial theory as the authors claim? Was it a crass publicity stunt as the press claim? Or was it some combination of both (which is what I’m now prone to believe). And was it harmless?

Personally, I wouldn’t have minded seeing Houdini exhumed. I freely admit I have a morbid curiosity to see the famous bronze casket and what remains of the old boy (not to mention the letters from mama buried under his head). Granted, if I were family, I might feel differently, but certainly Houdini wasn’t above prying the lid off deceased family members. He did exactly this with both his father and half-brother Herman when he had their bodies moved to the Machpelah family plot. I also would have loved all the publicity it would have generated (Will Houdini be inside?) and the Discovery Channel documentary that was vying to cover the event.

But to have gone this far would have required joining a collective conspiracy of belief in the poisoning theory, which most Houdini historians, including myself, find highly dubious. In the end, there was just no sincere reason to do this, and maybe that’s why it never happened.

For better or worse, the proposed exhumation of Houdini is now a part of the Houdini story. One day it would be nice to exhume the full truth.

Exhumation timeline:

• March 22, 2007: AP: Houdini kin wants body exhumed.
• March 23, 2007: Houdini dig conjures stir.
• March 24, 2007: Why not just hold a seance?
• March 27, 2007: Blood family speaks out against exhumation.
• December 12, 2007: "Death Expert" Bill Bass to examine Houdini's corpse.
• March 4, 2008: The Houdini exhumation is back in the news.
• March 16, 2008: So when do we start digging?
• February 28, 2009: Time to bury the Houdini exhumation.

So when do we start digging?

It was a year ago that a frenzy of media announced that the body of Houdini would be exhumed and tested to see if he was, yes, poisoned!

While the press seemed to have forgotten about this, fans have not, and I’ve received no shortage of enquires about when the old boy is going to be dug up.

I’m sorry to say I haven’t been able to get any straight answers, but the Daily News recently resurrected the story and added one telling new fact; the parties involved never even filed legal papers to preform an exhumation.

This, combined with the dead silence of a year, gives credence to a 2007 Washington Post report that the entire escapade was simply a book promotional stunt.

It looks like Houdini -- and the rest of us -- can rest in peace.

UPDATE: Time to bury the Houdini exhumation.

The Houdini exhumation is back in the news

After a year of silence, the Houdini exhumation is suddenly back in the "news." Hmmm... Here's the report in full from the Daily News:

Houdini exhumation to test for poison
BY ANNMARIE COSTELLA
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2008, 2:10 AM

Harry Houdini escaped from handcuffs, straitjackets and water-filled oversized milk cans - but the one thing he could never get away from was publicity.

Larry Sloman and William Kalush, authors of The Secret Life of Houdini, theorize that the magician was fatally poisoned by a vengeful clairvoyant on Halloween of 1926, and not felled by a ruptured appendix as long believed.

They want Houdini unearthed from his grave at Machpelah Cemetery in Ridgewood so tests can be performed.

"Houdini's memory would be honored so much more if we knew how he died," Sloman said. 

Since their book came out last March, Sloman and Kalush said they have been assembling a team of forensic specialists and exploring legal strategies, though they have yet to file court papers to have Houdini's body exhumed.

"We want to do this the right way," said Sloman. "We don't want to offend anyone."

But their controversial campaign has divided the Houdini family, angered magicians and sparked some nasty accusations.

Sloman and Kalush teamed with Houdini's great-nephew, George Hardeen, who initially told reporters: "Maybe it's time to take a second look."

However, Hardeen now appears to be indifferent. "It's all speculation," he said. "I am not intimately involved in this."

Jeffrey Blood, the grandnephew of Houdini's wife, Bess, is against exhumation.

"Bess Houdini's family feels strongly that there was nothing improper resulting in Houdini's death," he said. "It would be disgraceful to disturb his body based on a theory."

George Schindler, a spokesman for the Society of American Magicians, of which Houdini was president from 1917 to 1926, accused Hardeen of getting involved with the authors for "publicity purposes."

Dick Brooks and Dorothy Dietrich, directors of the Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pa., would love to learn more about Houdini's death, but they do not believe he was poisoned.

"In my opinion, it is a ploy to sell books," Brooks said.

Sloman, Kalush and Hardeen deny the accusations. "It's absolutely reprehensible," Sloman said.

Houdini, born Ehrich Weiss, relished publicity. His death-defying stunts and showmanship made him one of the biggest celebrities of the early 20th century. He was still a top performer when he died at age 52.

Renowned forensics expert Dr. Michael Baden noted there were common poisons available in the 1920s, such as arsenic and strychnine, which can remain in bones and teeth long after death.

Sloman and Kalush plan to keep pushing for exhumation - and hope to put the name Houdini back in the headlines soon.

"I think Houdini would have been delighted with all this attention," Kalush said.

One thing that really jumps out at me in this report is the fact that Sloman and Kalush "have yet to file court papers to have Houdini's body exhumed." Again, hmmm...

UPDATE: Time to bury the Houdini exhumation.

"Death expert" Bill Bass to examine Houdini's corpse

If the controversial plans to exhume Houdini's body come to fruition, one of the men on the case will be Bill Bass, one of the top "death experts" in the United States. Bass spoke to Wired about his involvement in the Houdini case.

Wired: For the moment, you have another goal -- digging up Harry Houdini. What's the status of that case?

Bass: There are descendants, and they have agreed to the exhumation to settle some of these theories that are out there.

I'm a member of the committee that is supposed to exhume him, once they get all of the legal things taken care of.

A book suggests that instead of dying from a ruptured appendix, he was poisoned. The committee consists of toxicologists, dentists and anthropologists. The toxicologists will take samples to see if there are any chemicals that shouldn't be there.

I'm the one that's supposed to make the positive identification. When he was living, he apparently fractured one of his ankles. Along with other data, we want to make sure there's a healed fracture to the ankle.

Wired: Is there a question about whether the body is really his?

Bass: I don’t think so, but you want to make sure that the person is the person you're supposed to have dug up. You want to make sure that if you're looking for Houdini, that it is Houdini. You don’t want to do all that and then a year from now hear from someone who says they dug up the wrong body.

Houdini's grave in Queens, NY

UPDATE: The Houdini exhumation is back in the news.

Blood family speaks out against exhumation

The Blood family have issued a statement speaking against the proposed exhumation of Houdini to test for poisoning. Here is their statement in full which was posted at the Scranton Houdini Museum website.

FAMILY STATEMENT 

Re: Houdini Exhumation

Regarding the proposed plan to exhume the body of Harry Houdini, relatives of Beatrice (Bess) Houdini are totally against it.

Based on information made available to us over the years, we feel there is no need to exhume his body. It is our firm belief that Bess Houdini would never approve of this. The family believes this is likely being done to promote sales of a recent book on Harry Houdini suggesting he may have been murdered.

The Houdini family wants to honor the name of Houdini and not use it for sensationalism that does not honor him.

Several members of Bess Houdini’s family are members of the Society of American Magicians (SAM) and have tried to promote him through the art of magic that Houdini loved. Bess’s relatives were honored guests at the US Post Office official stamp issuance held at the Society of American Magician convention held in New York City on July 3, 2002.

Marie Hinson Blood (Houdini’s niece) and David Copperfield were two of the honored speakers. Our family presence at this event was represented by 14 family members. We do not know why relatives of Hardeen (Houdini’s brother) did not participate in this event honoring Houdini.

The Houdini family established a youth magic scholarship fund through SAM when Marie Hinson Blood passed away in November 2004. This was to honor Houdini, the uncle she loved so much. Marie spent the last 20 years of her life speaking at magic conventions, schools and community events of her childhood memories of living with her aunt and uncle, the famous Houdini’s. In 2000 we established “Houdini Family” DBA to preserve the memories of Houdini and promote the art of magic.

Jeffrey Blood,

Grand Nephew of Houdini

Houdini Family

UPDATE: This response from the Hardeen side of the family was released today via the Associated Press.

Bruce Bobbins, spokesman for the Hardeen side of the family, said the Blood relatives - in an odd twist of phrase - “are not blood relatives of Harry Houdini and therefore have no legal standing on the issue.” 

Bobbins, of Dan Klores Communications, said that the Hardeen contingent was willing to meet with the Bloods to discuss any concerns, but that “we are still committed to moving forward in an expedient manner with the exhumation process.”

UPDATE 2: The Washington Post has a report on all this that may shed the most light on what's really going on here. Read: Why not just hold a seance?

Washington Post: Why not just hold a seance?

From left, George Washington University forensic science
professor James Starrs and authors William Kalush and Larry Sloman

The Washington Post has a very interesting article today about the proposed exhumation of Houdini to test for poisoning. This is starting to stink a bit. Here is the article in full:

Why Not Just Hold a Seance?
By David Segal
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 24, 2007

NEW YORK, March 23 -- Determined to right a historic wrong, a group that included authors, lawyers and a forensic pathologist called a news conference Friday to unveil a bold campaign to exhume a dead book.

No, wait.

To exhume a dead body. Well, that's what they said, anyway. But the more they talked about exhuming the body, the more it seemed like the point was reviving the sluggish sales of a nearly moribund book.

Specifically, The Secret Life of Harry Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, by William Kulash and Larry Sloman. Published in October, this door-stopper purports to reveal new and astounding elements of the great magician's life and death -- including the claim that he was murdered, a crime plotted by the husband of a spiritualist whom Houdini had debunked.

When this murder rap first surfaced in The Secret Life, nobody paid it much mind, probably because there is not a whit of remotely persuasive evidence to support it. But a couple days ago a public-relations firm in Manhattan issued a news release announcing that the "families of Harry Houdini" would call for the exhumation of their ancestor's body so that it could be tested for traces of poison. Further, the announcement stated, a noted law and forensic science professor at George Washington University, James Starrs -- whose previous celebrity disinterments included the outlaw Jesse James -- had agreed to conduct the tests.

"We are here today at the beginning of a historical moment," said attorney Joseph Tacopina, starting off the festivities and speaking before a few dozen reporters and photographers. "Advances in forensic science have increased our desire as a society to disinter the distinguished in order to solve outstanding mysteries. This is one."

The Houdini clan, it turned out, was represented by George Hardeen, a grand-nephew, who was later heard via speakerphone and identified by Tacopina as "the only known living descendant of the family." Tacopina said that he had received the consent of the cemetery in Queens where Houdini is buried, and that he has a "good and substantial case," which he stated is the legal standard to convince a court that a digging expedition is a good idea.

Exactly how compelling is this case? The standard account of Houdini's death is that on Oct. 22, 1926, while he was on tour in Montreal, a fan punched him in the stomach -- by invitation, but before he was ready for the blow -- rupturing an already inflamed appendix. (It's known that Houdini had been complaining of stomach pain at the time.) A doctor in a Detroit hospital tried injecting him with an experimental serum, but he died on Halloween, at the age of 52.

But authors Kulash and Sloman maintain that Houdini was the victim of a thuggish cabal of psychics. Houdini spent much of his career unmasking spiritualism as a fraud, and one of his favorite targets was one Mina "Margery" Crandon, a socialite who acquired a certain fame after claiming telekinetic abilities. Her husband, a prominent Boston surgeon named Le Roi Crandon, was supposedly a member of what the authors call "the Psychic mafia" and the man behind Houdini's poisoning. In the authors' telling, Crandon had a confederate inject Houdini with that serum in Detroit, and it was meant to kill him, not cure him.

Now, you would think that for this theory to hold water you'd need some link between Crandon and the physician who administered the serum, right? Nuh-uh.

"There is no connection between the two [men]," said Kalush in a chat after the news conference. "There might be a connection. What I'm saying is there is more to investigate there."

Don't just focus on the serum, Kalush said. Another revelation in The Secret Life is that after the initial punch, Houdini was attacked two more times, both times by men punching him in the stomach. Kind of a strange way to whack a guy -- send goons to repeatedly punch him in the stomach. But if that doesn't fly, Kalush says that Houdini could have been poisoned earlier in his tour.

"We don't have a day-to-day record of who was with Houdini on tour," Kalush said. "Crandon had a lot of connections. Do we have a smoking gun that Crandon had a friend in Houdini's camp who could have put something in his soup? No."

What we have here, to put it politely, is pure conjecture. Kenneth Silverman, a Pulitzer Prize winner and the author of Houdini!!!: The Career of Erich Weiss read The Secret Life and found the murder charge unconvincing.

"There's just no evidence given," he said. "I'll believe anything if you've got good evidence. But these are all very surprising and extreme conclusions. And the business about him being punched by a number of people sounds to me like utter baloney."

This wasn't the only story at the news conference that didn't quite check out. Hardeen, the grand-nephew, said he is not the only known descendant of Houdini. Far from it.

"There's lots of relatives out there," he said.

Well, did they sign off on this exhumation?

"I'm just speaking for myself. I don't represent the entire family, that's for sure."

Further, the man in charge of the cemetery in Queens said yesterday he hadn't given his okay to dig up Houdini's body -- nor is his okay needed.

"It's not up to me," David Jacobson explained, the cemetery's chairman of the board. "It's up to the courts."

Well, this is all starting to sound a little nutty, isn't it? Or not. The news conference, held at the American Jewish Historical Society, generated stories in the New York tabloids, and it was impossible to take a photo of Friday's event without including a big blown-up copy of the cover of The Secret Life.

It turns out this media spectacle was not orchestrated and paid for by the family of Houdini, as one might have inferred from Tacopina's opening remarks. It was organized and paid for by the authors, who hired the uber-crafty PR firm Dan Klores Communications to put it together. The idea, perhaps, was to goose sales of The Secret Life, which hasn't exactly burned up the bestseller list. It's sold a decent 24,000 since October, according to BookScan, which tracks most retailers, but the numbers are flagging. Last week, just 200 copies were sold.

So you can't help but feel sorry for Houdini, whose eternal peace could be disturbed for the sake of a hardback. One of his go-to stunts was escaping from a sealed coffin. If there's any justice in the world, here's hoping this misadventure ends with a bunch of people, huddled in a cemetery in Queens, gaping at an empty box.

UPDATE: Time to bury the Houdini exhumation.

Newsday: Houdini dig conjures stir

Newsday has an update in the proposed exhumation of Houdini to test for poisoning. Here is the article in full:

Houdini dig conjures stir
by Emi Endo, Newsday

If the family of legendary escape artist Harry Houdini succeeds in having his remains exhumed, forensic scientist James Starrs said Friday that his team of experts would look for evidence that Houdini was murdered.

An attorney for a relative of Houdini said would file court papers on Monday seeking to disinter the body from Machpelah Cemetery in Ridgewood.

The group that has been maintaining the graves of Houdini's family for decades is aghast at the prospect.

"We're very upset about all this," said George Schindler, the dean of the Society of American Magicians, a group that Houdini once presided over. Schindler, who noted that the cemetery was Jewish, added, "We feel it's almost like desecrating it."

An exhumation would go beyond seeking to determine whether the magician was poisoned, said Starrs, a George Washington University law professor who has spearheaded other high-profile exhumations. Starr said his volunteer group of forensic experts, pathologists and toxicologists would perform x-rays and examine the hair and fingernails.

"What we're going to be doing, certainly, is, shall I say, fleshing out Harry Houdini, so we know a great deal more about Harry Houdini," Starrs said at a Manhattan news conference. "And we may also know, hopefully, a great deal more about his death."

All that George Hardeen, whose grandfather was Houdini's brother, knew about Houdini's death came from stories passed down from his father.

"I had no inkling that Houdini might have been poisoned," he said via a telephone conference call from Tuba City, Ariz., where he lives.

When Houdini died on Halloween 1926 at age 52, the cause was listed as "traumatic appendicitis" brought on by a blow to his abdomen. But according to modern medicine, appendicitis cannot be caused by being struck.

The authors of a recent biography, The Secret Life of Houdini, wonder if Houdini's work debunking fraudulent Spiritualist mediums had made him enemies who would go so far as to kill him.

Author Larry Sloman said one possible scenario was that Houdini was poisoned for his activities against the Spiritualist movement.

But Schindler said it was his personal opinion that the exhumation effort was a mere publicity stunt. "I don't believe we should bother with this. It's a shame. The man's been dead for so many years," Schindler said. "I don't see what they have to prove."

UPDATE: Blood family speaks out against exhumation.

AP: Houdini kin wants body exhumed, tested

The Associated Press reports today that plans are being made to exhume Houdini's body to test for poisoning. This is an old theory which has gained some new traction with the publication of The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman. Here is the full report from the AP:

Houdini Kin Wants Body Exhumed, Tested

By LARRY McSHANE
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 22, 2007; 10:34 PM

NEW YORK - For all his death-defying stunts, Harry Houdini couldn't escape the Grim Reaper: He died on Halloween 1926, apparently from a punch to the stomach that ruptured his appendix. But rumors that he was murdered have persisted for decades. Eighty-one years after Houdini's death, his great-nephew wants the escape artist's body exhumed to determine if enemies poisoned him for debunking their bogus claims of contact with the dead.

"It needs to be looked at," George Hardeen told The Associated Press. "His death shocked the entire nation, if not the world. Now, maybe it's time to take a second look."

Houdini's family scheduled a news conference for Friday to give details on the plans. Prominent New York lawyer Joseph Tacopina is helping clear any legal hurdles to the exhumation.

A team of top forensic investigators would conduct new tests on Houdini's body, said Hardeen, whose grandfather was Houdini's brother.

The circumstances surrounding Houdini's sudden death are as murky as the rivers where he often escaped from chains, locks and wooden boxes.

The generally accepted version was that Houdini, 52, suffered a ruptured appendix from a punch in the stomach, leading to a fatal case of peritonitis. But no autopsy was performed.

When the death certificate was filed on Nov. 20, 1926, Houdini's body -- brought by train from Detroit to Manhattan -- had already been buried in Queens, along with any evidence of a possible death plot.

Within days, a newspaper headline wondered, "Was Houdini Murdered?"

A 2006 biography, The Secret Life of Houdini, raised the issue again and convinced some that he might have been poisoned, including George Hardeen, who lives in Arizona and is the chief spokesman for the president of the Navajo Nation.

The likeliest murder suspects were members of a group known as the Spiritualists. The magician devoted large portions of his stage show to exposing the group's fraudulent seances. The movement's devotees included Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle.

In the Houdini biography, authors William Kalush and Larry Sloman detail a November 1924 letter in which Doyle said Houdini would "get his just desserts very exactly meted out ... I think there is a general payday coming soon."

Two years later, Houdini -- by all accounts a man in extraordinary physical shape -- was dead. Kalush and Sloman say that "the Spiritualist underworld's modus operandi in cases like this was often poisoning" -- possibly arsenic, which could be detected decades later.

The authors also suggest that Houdini might have been poisoned by "an experimental serum" injected by one of his doctors at Detroit's Grace Hospital.

Houdini took the Spiritualists' death threats seriously, but he traveled without security, often accompanied only by his wife, Bess.

"If someone were hell-bent on poisoning Houdini," the authors wrote, "it wouldn't have been very difficult."

Forensic pathologist Professor James Starrs

The team working on the exhumation includes internationally known forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden and professor James Starrs, a forensic pathologist who has studied the disinterred remains of gunslinger Jesse James and "Boston Strangler" Albert DeSalvo.

Baden, who chaired panels reinvestigating the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., pointed out a pair of oddities in Houdini's death certificate: It noted his appendix was on the left side, rather than the right. And the diagnosis of appendicitis caused by a punch was "very unusual."

Starrs said he was long familiar with the story of Houdini's death, and believed the fatal injury was the result of an accident until he read the Houdini biography.

"My eyebrows went up when I read this book," Starrs said. "I thought, 'This is really startling, surprising and unsettling, and at bottom, suspicious in nature.'"

The exhumation plan received support from a surprising source: Anna Thurlow, the great-granddaughter of "medium" Margery, whose husband Dr. Le Roi Crandon was one of the Spiritualist movement's biggest proponents -- and one of Houdini's enemies.

During a 1924 "seance," Margery channeled a "spirit" named Walter who greeted Houdini with a threat: "I put a curse on you now that will follow you every day for the rest of your short life."

"With people that delusional, you have to question what they're capable of,'" Thurlow said. "If there's any circumstantial evidence that Houdini was poisoned, we have to explore that."

UPDATE: Houdini dig conjures stir.