agent Houdini no longer drown in WTC

my grandfather talking with me about Houdini ask me to find what year Houdini drown and when I look it say he die of roommate punch to stomach.

then we talk about the details how he read the detail in the papers, some of which I too remember talking with him and family whenever we do magic card trick or watch magician on tv.

especially about someone switch the key to the underwater locks last minute which cause him to drown in famous Water Tower Chamber (which he and his predecessor make famous even now) after he did shows in Moscow for czar and intel agency need him no more, ex comunicado.


what happened?

originally posted by: vnski
my grandfather talking with me about Houdini ask me to find what year Houdini drown and when I look it say he die of roommate punch to stomach.

then we talk about the details how he read the detail in the papers, some of which I too remember talking with him and family whenever we do magic card trick or watch magician on tv.

especially about someone switch the key to the underwater locks last minute which cause him to drown in famous Water Tower Chamber (which he and his predecessor make famous even now) after he did shows in Moscow for czar and intel agency need him no more, ex comunicado.


what happened?

I have no clue what you said, but it sounds like either way, he went better than bob crane did.

I'm sure it's because english isn't your first language.

a reply to: vnski

This is the story I remember.

According to reports, Houdini was looking through his mail, when one of the students, J. Gordon Whitehead, asked Harry if he could indeed withstand any blow to the abdomen, as the magician had previously proclaimed. Harry responded that he could, if given time to brace himself, at which point Whitehead hit Houdini four times in the abdomen, under the impression that Houdini had indeed braced himself for the blows.

The Death of Houdini

I assumed all along that Houdini died from drowning in an act, but evidently the TV shows made a fool of me. This reality I have lived in was far from real. I wonder how many others believe he died in water? I was young when I formed that opinion, deception has been going on for a long time. Just because you believe something does not mean it is real, even something like that can cause many in society to be wrong.

I had to find out if the OP was real, and I guess it is. I guess dying from injuries from getting punched in the gut is not juicy enough for Hollywood.

It's been a few decades since I last researched this subject but as far as I can recall:

Houdini's cause of death was fever / infection due to a ruptured appendix caused by a blow to the stomach. Houdini allowed people to hit him in the stomach as a strongman gimmick and the person who inflicted the wound caused it by hitting Houdini too fast, before Houdini had tensed his stomach muscles.

I believe there was a movie in the 50's starring Tony Curtis that - may - have used the water torture act as a backdrop for Houdini's final show - the night he died ( or possibly the night before ) and in that movie they may have used a bit of allegorical poetic license for dramatic effect by making the water torture trick more important than it actually was.

its a good story.

nobody can claim sabotage punch.

then again there was bruce lee, too..

finally something that makes sense

a reply to: vnski

Initially when reading the title I thought Houdini had a connection with the WTC - World Trade Center.

But Hefficide is on the money from what I learned years back.

Kind regards,

Bally

There was a story about how Houdini used the whole "appendix" rupture as an excuse to disappear from the lime-light. he was getting a little long in the tooth and wanted to leave the whole scene, but given that it would have been impossible for him to do that he concocted the "appendix" plot to fake his death, and move on with his life.

Another reason that was tossed around was that members of a certain "Spiritualist Society" had it out for him due to Houdini hitting them in the money-maker (ie busting the séances that were being used to scam the rich). The only option he had in his attempt to save both his life and that of his brother was to fake his own death. In 1926 right before his "death" he had hired HP Lovecraft to help out in a few projects, it was during these meetings that through Lovecraft, Houdini was informed that Aleister Crowley had a warning about the "Spiritualist Society" that was going to go after him for the exposure on their scamming.

Now to be fair these were just a few of the things I heard, and the evidence I saw to confirm it was a little vague, but there was talk about it with some people having differing pieces of evidence that all pointed to it being possible. Who knows the truth with all this, after all Houdini was the greatest of escape artists, and an expert debunker of paranormal scammers.

If you wanted to waste a lot of time, the whole scene around how Houdini died, and what became of him afterwards are both a frightening and fun why to spend it.

Houdini sure was a man of mystery.

I regularly pass by Diggers Rest and the site where Houdini made the first successful powered flight in Australia. (March 18th 1910)

There is a memorial near the railway station that commemorates it.

Synchronicity strikes again.

I read this thread earlier this morning, and google'd up his cause of death, having never really bothered. Read the rest of the thread, where some allude to it being one of those times where now doesn't match then. And subsequently forget the thread.

half 2 in the afternoon, bored with sunday, flicking around the telly, and see a movie called "Death Defying Acts."

Yep, a movie about Harry Houdini.........

I wish the things that do this would just come out and speak.. the nefarious buggers like sending people round the twist..

a reply to: MisterSpock

How on earth can you not understand that?

His grandfather asked him to look up details of Houdini’s death. They both remembered him drowning because someone switched the locks in his famous magic trick. Turns out he dies of a punch to the stomach.

a reply to: MisterSpock

It appears Houdini was a spy

www.npr.org...

A new biography suggests that he also served as a spy for the U.S. and British governments before World War I.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Who better than an escape artist to be someone to sneak into your enemies lair, and snoop relentlessly till caught, and... escape with the goods !! *shh mums the word*

ionno.. I don't much like magicians. Especially the ones who say "I'll reveal how they do it!" and still don't. they're all spies if you ask me.

a reply to: rickymouse

Yip that is what i remember the devil box in the corner telling me that Houdini died because of a blunder in a water tank , but how many times has Jack the ripper been solved ? .

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Yes, he died here in Detroit at Old Grace Hospital...after receiving an unprepared for blow to the stomach backstage.

This theatre he was performing at is a nightly rock concert, pool and pizza place still here called "The Majestic"..."Magic Bag"...

a reply to: vnski

He 100% died after I punched his weak ass in the stomach.

that was insiteful, GuyFriday!

so he was illusionist (well as agent for US) and a threat to black magick Crowley crowd.

my gut feeling is it have to do with Czar, and Russia. don't buy cover story!

dying in hospital echo off Bruce Lee.

a reply to: vnski

You misunderstand. He wasn't a threat to any "black Magic" group. Crowley is a much more interesting figure then you might have thought if that's all you know of him. From my understanding Houdini was exposing this "Spiritualist Society" as frauds and hurting their business. Crowley had connections in the "Spiritualist Society" that gave him the heads-up on a possible hit on Houdini. I guess the informant didn't know that Lovecraft was friends with Crowley, or wasn't aware that Houdini had started working with Lovecraft on a few book projects. Either way, according to the story, Crowley gave Lovecraft the message to warn Houdini about that hit, and then he concocted his fake death in order to get out of show business as well as protect his family from getting hurt. After Houdini's "death" the anti-spiritualist movement got started and the whole situation with them started to die off. Nobody knows why the spiritualist movement started to die off, but from what I heard it was Houdini working behind the scenes taking them down through proxy.

I don't know if the story was true or not, but a few interesting points to note:
Crowley was suspected to be an agent of the British Government
Lovecraft was friends with Crowley
Houdini had searched out Lovecraft specifically for a project
One of Houdini's relatives wanted to exhume Houdini's body to close the book on the spiritualist murder story, but was blocked by other members of the family

All interesting, but also just stories without evidence.