Who Killed Houdini?

It’s long been held that Harry Houdini died on Halloween Day, 1926, when his appendix ruptured after he was hit in the stomach. However a book published last year has raised some questions about that--and members of Houdini’s family are now looking to find the answers.

According to the Associated Press, The Secret Life of Houdini, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman (Atria), convinced some people that the renowned magician might have been poisoned and--in case that’s not a strong enough literary link--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, is among those implicated.

The likeliest murder suspects were members of a group known as the Spiritualists. The magician devoted large portions of his stage show to exposing the group's fraudulent séances. The movement’s devotees included Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle.

In the Houdini biography, authors William Kalush and Larry Sloman detail a November 1924 letter in which Doyle said Houdini would “get his just desserts very exactly meted out ... I think there is a general payday coming soon.”

Now, 81 years after his death, Houdini’s descendants want some answers, and they’ve approved an exhumation order to get them.

The team working on the exhumation includes internationally known forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden and professor James Starrs, a forensic pathologist who has studied the disinterred remains of gunslinger Jesse James and “Boston Strangler” Albert DeSalvo.

Expect more developments in this story. In the meantime, you can read the whole AP item here.

By the way, had Houdini not died of mysterious causes, he’d be turning 133 on March 24.