Unraveling the Houdini Mystery

We love to tell stories. The act of spinning tales is a tradition throughout history. We enjoy enthralling our audience. But one type of story in particular has always held our interest. The mystery. As we can see with some of the recent fads like the DaVinci Code, we especially like to apply mysterious attributes to real historical occurrences.

This need to find patterns, and to solve mysteries is the very thing that enthralls us about magic- knowing that it can be explained, but being unable to do so. Houdini was a master of illusion and escape, but also worked tirelessly to debunk attempts by others to claim supernatural powers. It's ironic that one of Houdini's greatest critics was the creator of the master of deduction. Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous writer (and a former friend of Houdini's), was involved in the foremost group that Houdini debunked, known as "The Spiritualists"- a group that routinely held séances and claimed spiritual powers. Houdini debunked these séances repeatedly, sometimes even publicly, and eventually even offered a cash reward to anyone claiming to have supernatural powers.

The story of Houdini's death has just the right mix of intrigue and mystique- the famous magician/illusionist died on Hallows eve in 1926, from peritonitis from a ruptured appendix, after several blows to the stomach.

As the traditional story goes, Houdini had long claimed he could take blows to the stomach without damage. After a show one evening, he was challenged to take a blow, but was punched as he was rising from his chair, before he could take the proper position to absorb it. No autopsy was performed, but it has been long believed that the punches aggravated a pre-existing condition with his appendix.