A few months before his death, Houdini even testified before Congress in support of legislation that would have criminalized fortune-telling for hire and “any person pretending to … unite the separated” in the District of Columbia. In the last years of his life, Houdini, who’d once displayed open curiosity about Spiritualism (a religious movement based on the belief that the dead could interact with the living), publicly inveighed against fraudulent mediums who conned grieving customers out of their money. He’d likely be mortified, however, to learn that these remembrances take the form of a séance. Ever the attention-seeker in life, Houdini would be honored that admirers are still marking the anniversary of his death after 95 years. Though visitors are banned from visiting the magician’s grave on Halloween, devotees continue to gather for the tradition elsewhere. I do not believe that Houdini can come back to me, or to anyone.”ĭespite Bess’ lack of success, the Houdini séance ritual persists to this day. But on Halloween 1936, she finally gave up, declaring to the world, “Houdini did not come through. Over the next ten years, Bess hosted annual séances to see if the so-called Handcuff King would come through with an encore performance from the spirit world. Famous in life for his improbable escapes from physical constraints, the illusionist promised his wife, Bess, that-if at all possible-he would also slip the shackles of death to send her a coded message from the beyond. Harry Houdini was just 52 when he died on Halloween in 1926, succumbing to peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix.
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