Houdini's Final Escape: Mystery Surrounds the Famous Magician's Life and Death

Harry Houdini is arguably the most famous illusionist in history. He was born Erich Weiss, but adopted the name Houdini at the age of 15 after reading an autobiography of the French magician Jean Robert-Houdin. Until then, Houdini worked various odd jobs to help support his penniless family. Reading Houdin's autobiography, however, changed Erich's life. With his new moniker and a sense of purpose, Houdini began performing 20 magic shows a day, netting the young magician about $12 per week.

From these humble beginnings, Houdini rose to international fame. His ability to wiggle out of any set of handcuffs earned him the nickname "King of Handcuffs." Simple escape tricks like that were not enough for Houdini. He always sought to impress his audiences with increasingly complex escape tricks. Houdini was known to have escaped from items such as sunken packing crates, an enormous paper bag (without tearing the paper), padded cells, coffins, a roll-top desk, burglar-proof safes, a preserved giant squid, a giant football, an iron boiler, a diving suit, a U.S. mail pouch and a plate glass box.

It's not surprising that a man who made a living creating illusions has mysteries surrounding his life and death. Houdini himself claimed to have been born in Appleton, Wisconsin, saying famously "the greatest escape I ever made was when I left Appleton, Wisconsin." While it is true that Houdini spent much of his childhood there, he actually was born in Budapest, Hungary. With such confusion regarding the details of his birth, it's only appropriate that another common misconception surrounding Houdini is the circumstances of his death.