On Oct. 22, 1926, Harry Houdini, the greatest showman of his era, was resting on a divan in his dressing room at the Princess Theater in Montreal when he was visited by three university students who had attended his lecture earlier in the week.
One of them, Joscelyn Gordon Whitehead, asked if it were true that, as Houdini often boasted, his abdomen could withstand any blow. He then delivered a few quick punches in succession.
Taken by surprise, Houdini winced but did not think much of it, boarding an overnight train to Detroit. Nine days later, he was dead.
The official cause of death was an abdominal infection from a ruptured appendix widely attributed to Whitehead’s blows.
Houdini’s demise stunned an audience that had come to view him as impervious to danger. How had the mighty magician managed to die at a youthful 52 of something as prosaic as appendicitis?
After all, Houdini, a Hungarian-born escape artist had achieved world renown for repeatedly cheating the jaws of death — freeing himself from padlocked crates, surfacing from underwater coffins and wriggling out of upside-down straitjackets.
He was famous for his physical conditioning and prided himself on having the fitness of a professional athlete. Myth had it that he could control individual muscles, dislocating his shoulders on demand.
Multiple theories have surfaced over the years, feeding the aura of suspicion around Houdini’s death. This Halloween is its 100th anniversary.
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