Magic Roadshow

  By Samantha Beckett for Above The Law…   

In 1926, Harry Houdini did not have a happy Halloween. The world-famous magician and escape artist died on October 31, 1926, at the age of 52. The man who appeared to cheat death countless times died of peritonitis, the last in a month-long series of injuries and ailments that included a ruptured appendix — the result of surprise punches to his stomach from a McGill University student. This week, On Remand looks back at The Great Houdini and the cases of two magicians who used the legal system to try to take their secrets to the grave…

Born in Budapest in 1874, Houdini (born Erik Weisz) immigrated with his family to Appleton, Wisconsin, at the age of four. Five years later, he joined the circus as a trapeze artist, launching his career as a performer. By the age of eighteen, young Erik Weisz had left the circus and his name behind. Adopting the moniker Harry Houdini, he embarked on a career as a professional magician and escape artist. Early in his career, Houdini focused on handcuff and prison escapes. (In 1902, Houdini escaped from the federal prison cell in Washington that once held President Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau.) He then moved on to escapes that were more dramatic — and more dangerous. Houdini’s death-defying escapes included freeing himself from a sealed milk can, “Chinese water torture cell,” and a straightjacket while suspended from a crane. Houdini also performed several variations of a “buried alive” stunt…

Read more