The greatest magician in history cheated death many times. He would allow himself to be sealed in a milk container filled with water. In his “Chinese Water Torture Cell”, he was submerged upside down in a water while shackled at his ankles. On Oct. 11, 1924, he fractured his ankle doing that trick. On Oct. 22, with his ankle bandaged, he hosted some college students who he had lectured to a few days before. Houdini was laying on a couch because of his ankle. J. Gordon Whitehead asked Harry if it was true that he could take a punch to his abdomen with no problem. Houdini had performed this trick before, but always with his chest muscles tightened. Whitehead gave him no chance to do that. The enormous jerk suddenly punched Houdini as hard as he could twice before the magician could stop him. Houdini laughed it off, but he was in considerable pain and it got much worse. He insisted on moving on to Detroit for a show. On the train he was in great pain, with cold sweats, fatigue, and a 104 degree temperature. A doctor insisted he go to the hospital for appendicitis, but he refused. He did the show and collapsed right after. Finally, his wife got him to go to a hospital. His ruptured appendix was removed, but peritonitis had spread. He died in agony on Halloween night. His last words were “I’m tired of fighting.” He was 52.
There has been some speculation about his cause of death. A ruptured appendix caused by a trauma is very rare, so he might have already had a ruptured appendix and just blamed the pain on the punches. And maybe he was murdered! Houdini was not just a magician. His side job was debunking spiritualists like fortune tellers. He had embarrassed many of them by proving they were frauds. And he had won millions in suits against them. Perhaps he was poisoned by one. Or Whitehead was working for one of them. It’s ridiculous, of course, but imagine what social media would do with this today.
https://www.history.com/news/what-killed-harry-houdini
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/what-caused-harry-houdinis-mysterious-death
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