Science to Reveal Circumstances of Houdini’s Death

Historical records list the cause of Harry Houdini’s death on Halloween 1926, age 52, as “complications” resulting from “a punch to his stomach that ruptured his appendix.”

Eighty-one years later, his great-nephew, George Hardeen, wants to prove otherwise. Hardeen is convinced that his great-uncle was murdered and is making arrangements with an attorney and a team of forensic pathologists to exhume the body and have it tested for poison, possibly arsenic.

Apparently, the escape artist made a few enemies from an occult group and received many death threats during the last few years of his life. He was buried in Queens, NY, without an autopsy.

Regardless of the outcome, for the film version, I think they should cast Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell as Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle respectively.

Photo credit: Library of Congress item in McManus-Young Collection.