Embalming Techniques Invalidate Halloween Demise For the past 99 years, the magic world has remembered the death of the greatest magician of his time, and perhaps ours, on October 31. The man who railed against spiritualism and seemed almost obsessed with disproving its validity, had the showbiz luck of dying on the day that many…
The Case of the Tampered Death Certificate The first certificate is the City of Detroit certified document which is the original death certificate prepared by the William Hamilton Mortuary, which should or may have been submitted to the State Vital Statistics Department but was not in their records. The second certificate reveals the numerous changes…
Allegations of Tampering with Harry Houdini’s Death Certificate Fuel Suspicions of Insurance Fraud In my previous articles, I have addressed the medical situations surrounding Houdini’s death. Although it is accepted he died from appendicitis, there are several intriguing issues with his official death certificate from the State of Michigan. First, states differ in the forms…
Did Houdini’s own stubbornness—and a feud between doctors—cost him his life after a misdiagnosed ruptured appendix sent him spiraling into a fatal medical disaster? In medicine we have a saying that goes ” any elevator operator would tell you” when something is so obvious and undeniable that someone with no medical education could make the…
Shocking details from Houdini’s “last photo” reveal secrets of 1920s embalming, mysterious reflections, and the truth behind his final journey—was this really his memento mori? Victorians believed the worst fate that could befall someone was to die alone and be forgotten. Memorial death images, or Memento Mori, were often taken of a relative as a…
A cryptic 1925 Houdini letter hints that his greatest secret wasn’t drugs, but a mysterious “dope” that sealed his magic escapes. I think country western artist Tim McGraw sang it right when he wished ” coke was still a Coke”, as meanings change over time in any language. On November 27, 1925 Houdini sent a…
Harry Houdini, the legendary magician and skeptic of supernatural claims, made significant efforts to expose fraudulent spiritualist practices. Among his investigations, Houdini demonstrated how so-called “spirit hands” were fabricated during séances to trick participants. In his work “A Magician Among the Spirits,” Houdini described a particular form of deceit known as “finger-printing a spirit.” This…
In a world where magic seems to defy the laws of nature, the story of Bess Houdini reveals a haunting truth behind the glamour: the heartbreaking struggle with infertility. Born Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner in 1876, Bess Houdini stood at just four feet and eleven inches tall, and weighed 90 pounds, which gave her a unique…
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