THE TERRIBLE DEATH OF HARRY HOUDINI "BY A PUNCHED ON HIM BY OVERAGER FAN"

Legend has it that Harry Houdini


died on Halloween in 1926 after an overeager fan punched him in the gut and caused his appendix to rupture — but the two events may not have been linked.


Harry Houdini defied the impossible throughout a mystifying career that still makes him a household name today. From swallowing needles a score at a time to pulling himself out of a whale carcass, to his famous “Chinese Water Torture Cell” escapes, Houdini dazzled millions with his stunts.


It seemed that death could never claim the famous magician, but Harry Houdini’s death did come on Halloween of 1926 — leaving behind mystery and speculation that has fascinated people ever since.


Harry Houdini’s Death-Defying Career


Harry Houdini was born on March 24, 1874, as Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, and immigrated to the United States in 1878. Weisz started his career with stunts early, performing trapeze at age nine before beginning a Vaudeville career in magic in 1891.


He changed his name to Harry Houdini in honor of the famous French magician, Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.


Houdini became known as the “handcuff king” and marveled audiences worldwide with the ability to escape from almost anything. His most famous escape was the “Chinese Water Torture Cell” in which an upside-down, suspended Houdini is lowered into then locked into a tank of water.


Wikimedia CommonsHarry Houdini performing the “Chinese Water Torture Cell” escape.


He was allowed two minutes to escape, which he invariably did to the delight of audiences. Houdini’s theatrics and charismatic persona seemed to be made for the burgeoning revolution of media in the early 20th century. He quickly rocketed to super-stardom.

Unexpected Body Blows


In 1926 at age 52, Harry Houdini was at the top of his game.


He toured the country in the early part of the year, performing escapes and enjoying his decades-old fame. But when he toured again that autumn, everything seemed to go wrong.


On October 11, Houdini broke his ankle while performing Water Torture Cell escape trick in Albany, New York. He managed to push through the next several appearances against doctor’s orders and then traveled to Montreal. There he made appearances at the Princess Theater and held a lecture at McGill University.


Wikimedia CommonsHarry Houdini prepares to escape from handcuffs — and a box thrown overboard a ship — in 1912.


After the lecture, he schmoozed with students and faculty, among them Samuel J. “Smiley” Smilovitch, who made a sketch of the famous magician. Houdini was so impressed with the drawing that he invited Smilovitch to come to the Princess Theater on Friday, October 22 to do a proper portrait.


On the appointed day at 11 a.m., Smilovitch came to visit Harry Houdini with a friend, Jack Price. They were later joined by a freshman student named Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead.


While Smilovitch sketched Houdini, Whitehead chatted with the magician. After some talk about Houdini’s physical strength, Whitehead asked if it was true that he could withstand even the mightiest punch to the stomach. Jack Price then recalled the following as was recorded in Ruth Brandon’s book, The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini:


“Houdini remarked rather unenthusiastically that his stomach could resist much….Thereupon he [Whitehead] gave Houdini some very hammer-like blows below the belt, first securing Houdini’s permission to strike him. Houdini was reclining at the time with his right side nearest Whitehead, and the said student was more or less bending over him.”


Whitehead struck at least four times until Houdini gestured him to stop in mid-punch. Price recalled that Houdini, “looked as though he was in extreme pain and winced as each blow was struck.”


Houdini said that he didn’t think Whitehead would strike so suddenly, otherwise he would have been better prepared.


By evening, Houdini was suffering tremendous pain in his abdomen.


Library of CongressOne of Harry Houdini’s tricks was escaping from a milk can.


The Last Performance


The next evening, Houdini left Montreal on an overnight train to Detroit, Michigan. He telegraphed ahead for a doctor to examine him.


The doctor diagnosed Houdini with acute appendicitis and said he should go immediately the hospital. But the Garrick Theater in Detroit had already sold $15,000 worth of tickets for that evening’s show. Houdini reportedly said, “I’ll do this show if it’s my last.”


Houdini carried on with the show at the Garrick on October 24, despite having a temperature of 104°F. Between the first and second acts, ice packs were used to cool him down.

According to some reports, he passed out during the performance. By the beginning of the third act, he called off the show. Houdini 


I appreciate you reading. Post your ideas in the space provided for comments below.

Read more on our Rare History Channel 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim, 48, was stoned to death by militants from the Hizb Al-Islam group i

Image
  Stoning is a form of execution by torture where the individual who throws the deadly stone cannot be identified. In some countries, those sentenced to stoning, or “lapidation” as it is also called, are buried in a hole and covered with soil (men up to their waists; women to a line above their breasts), according to Article 102 of the Islamic Penal Code. A selected group then executes the alleged adulterers using rocks and sticks.    Those able to escape the hole during stoning can be freed, according to Islamic law, a feat that is much more difficult for women than for men because so much more of their body is covered during lapidation. Stoning is considered a form of community justice and has its fair share of critics both among human rights groups and Islamic clerics. In Somalia, a 48-year old man was buried up to his waist and stoned to death by 50 men in a stadium with 1000 spectators. After his death it was revealed he saw a girl that has been raped by three men an...
Read more

The Worst And Brutal Story of the Bisbee Massacre Which Took Place on Main Street At The Castaneda And Goldwater Mercantile

Image
  The Bisbee Massacre:  Part Three The event forever known as the Bisbee Massacre took place on Main Street at the Castaneda and Goldwater Mercantile Emporium on December 8, 1883. What started as a robbery to grab the monthly payroll of the Copper Queen Mine escalated to murder leaving five people dead including Annie Roberts’s unborn child.  The bandits escaped and in an extraordinary and effective effort by County Sheriff Jerome Ward and his deputies all were captured and jailed in Tombstone in just 45 days. The five gang members who committed the robbery and murders—Red Sample, Tex Howard, Mick Kelly, Big Dan Dowd and Billy Delaney—went to trial on February 9.  Judge David H. Pinney presided.  The evidence against the defendants was strong and the prosecutor’s case well-prepared.  All five were found guilt on February 11 and sentenced to die on the gallows.   Their ringleader, Bisbee dance hall owner John Heith, was tried separately but concurr...
Read more

Mexican Chainsaw Beheading

Image
Mexican Chainsaw Beheading Article in 'Murder' published by D.O.A., Aug 3, 2013. One of the men is identified as Felix Gamez Garcia, who admits to trafficking drugs to the United States and the other man is identified as Barnabas Gamez Castro, who is the uncle of the first man. One of the men is identified as Felix Gamez Garcia, who admits to trafficking drugs to the United States and the other man is identified as Barnabas Gamez Castro, who is the uncle of the first man.  Despite their bad decision to become halcones and collaborate with one of the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico, the Sinaloa Cartel or CDS, they are foremost human beings and no human being deserves to die in this manner. Both men are sitting against an adobe wall, they have no shirt on, and seem renounced to their fate.  They answer the questions posed to them by sicarios dressed in military uniforms, and they talk, but deep inside, they must know that no matter what they say, they will not make it out al...
Read more

I HAVE NEVER READ ANYTHING MORE HORRIFIC THAN THIS

Image
    I have never read anything more horrific than this. 😭 The photo below  shows Italian General Alexandro Luzano standing above a slaughtered Serbian child in front of a school in Prebilovci. The letter he sent to Mussolini after this crime has been preserved in the military archives: "Dear Duce, WATCH:  MAKE MONEY FROM CRYPTO 2024 My boundless devotion to you, I hope, entitles me to deviate in some way from strict military protocol. That is why I hasten to describe to you an event that I personally attended three weeks ago. While visiting the districts of Stolac, Capljina and Ljubinje (between 60 and 130 km north of Dubrovnik) - I learned from our intelligence officers that Pavelic's Ustashas had committed a crime in a village (Prebilovci) the day before, and that when it became known , the surrounding Serbs to be upset again. I miss the words to describe what I found there. In the big school classroom, I found a slaughtered teacher and 120 of her students! No chi...
Read more

A TERRIBLE HISTORY OF HOW A GORILLA R*P£S TWO G*Y GENTLEMEN PHIL AND PAUL IN THE ZOO,

Image
They came across the gorillas and after a while they noticed that the huge male gorilla had a massive erection.  Gorilla rapes man Two gay gentlemen Phil and Paul were walking through a zoo.  They came across the gorillas and after a while they noticed that the huge male gorilla had a massive erection.  This fascinated the gay men so much they couldn't take their eyes off of it. Paul just couldn't bear it any longer and he reached into the cage to touch it.  The gorilla grabbed him, dragged him into the cage and screwed him for six hours non-stop. When he was done, the gorilla threw Paul back out of the cage. An ambulance was called and the man was taken away to the hospital.  The next day Phil visits him in the hospital and asked, "Are you hurt?" "AM I HURT?" Paul shouted, "Wouldn't you be? That big ape hasn't called, he hasn't written, "  thanks for reading. Read more on our  Rare History Channel 
Read more

THE HORRIBLE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE NAZIS IN THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Image
 The HORRIFIC entertainment of the Nazis in the concentration camps Perhaps the most disconcerting kind of performing arts to emerge from Nazi concentration camps was the concept of ‘human vivisection,’  or the exhibition of prisoners as mere spectacles of entertainment for SS guards and men. Prisoners could be compelled to entertain in absurd and highly obscene spectacles, often exhibiting their near-starving bodies.  It is often asked why Jews did not make greater attempts at resistance. Principally, they had no access to arms and were surrounded by native anti-Semitic populations who might collaborate with the Nazis or,  even if they were opposed to German occupation, may have been willing to condone the elimination of the Jews and were reticent to put their own lives as risk.  In essence, the Jews stood alone against a German war machine zealously determined to carry out the “final solution.” Moreover, the Nazis went to great lengths to disguise their ultima...
Read more

MAN K!DN*P G!RL R*P£ HER UNT!L PR!V*TE P*RT. D£STR0Y£D

Image
  Donald Smith k!dnapped, r*ped, and mvrdered 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle. He lvred the girl’s family to Walmart and then left with just her. The medical examiner’s report was so graphic that it’s hard to read, let alone hear, and it’s clear this man is absolutely disgusting. But, if you can believe it, it gets worse, leaving one simple question: Does Donald Smith deserve the death penalty for raping and murdering Cherish? Cherish Perrywinkle of Jacksonville, Florida, went missing from a local Walmart in June 2013, and her case quickly made national headlines. According to Rayne Perrywinkle, the child’s mother, she and her three daughters, including 8-year-old Cherish, were shopping when a stranger changed their lives forever. Struggling financially, the mother said she thought that Donald Smith, then 56, was the blessing she needed when he approached her and offered to help her out. Little did she know, his “kind” gesture was all a front to get what he really wanted, and it wou...
Read more

The Story Of The Judas Cradle, Perhaps The Most Agonizing Torture Device In History

Image
   While it may not look like much, the Judas cradle is believed to have spelled a sickening end for the heretics who ended up on the wrong side of its razor-sharp tip during the Spanish Inquisition. If there’s one thing that we can expect from the Spanish Inquisition, it’s unique and brutal methods of torture. In fact, some of history’s most infamous torture methods were implemented by the inquisitors to punish those believed to have sinned, including the rack, the wheel, and water torture. One lesser known torture method favored by the Spanish, though, was the Judas Cradle — and oddly, they considered it to be one of the most humane. There’s not much to the device itself. It’s a carved wooden pyramid at the top of three wooden legs, sort of like a stool though admittedly not one you’d want to sit on. It was placed in the corner of a torture chamber, and above it a person would be suspended, nude, with their hands and feet bound by ropes attached to gears. They would then be ...
Read more

1944: THE WOLA MASSACRE BEGIN'S DURING THW WARSAW UPRISING

Image
  Posted on 5 August, 2017 by Headsman On this date in 1944, a weeklong German slaughter of Polish civilians and resistance fighters began in the Wola district of the capital city Warsaw. The Wola Massacre marked the start of the Reich’s counterattack against the Warsaw Uprising, the heroic and suicidal rising mounted by the Polish Home Army as the Red Army’s summer offensive brought it to the banks of the Vistula. Aiming to claim some foothold upon which to influence events in the soon-to-be Soviet-occupied Poland, the Home Army enjoyed initial success in the first days of August. But German reserves from the Replacement Army — the vehicle by which the Valkyrie plotters had attempted their coup against Hitler just days before, and now as a consequence answering directly to Heinrich Himmler — were quick to the scene and would turn back the rising in weeks of bloody urban warfare. Himmler’s authority in crushing the Warsaw Uprising would also allow him to give rein to his SS for a c...
Read more

THE TERRIBLE EXECUTION OF ELIZABETH BECKER "SHE A NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMP GUARD

Image
 Elisabeth Becker Elisabeth Becker (20 July 1923 – 4 July 1946) was a Nazi concentration camp overseer in World War II. She was convicted at the Stutthof trials of crimes against humanity and executed. Elisabeth Becker Biskupia Górka, Gdańsk, Republic of Poland Cause of deathExecution by hangingOccupationGuard of the Stutthof concentration campOrganizationSS-Gefolge (Women's SS Division)Political partyNazi PartyMotiveNazismConviction(s)Crimes against humanityTrialStutthof trialsCriminal penaltyDeathDetailsVictims30+ Span of crimes 5 September 1944 – 15 January 1945CountryPolandLocation(s)Stutthof concentration camp Life Becker was born in Neuteich, Danzig (today Nowy Staw, Poland) to a German family. In 1936, aged 13, she joined the League of German Girls. In 1938, she became a tramway conductor in Danzig. In 1940, she began working for the Dokendorf firm in Neuteich, where she was employed until 1941, when she became an agriculture assistant in Danzig. Camp In 1944, the SS needed ...
Read more