Erik Weisz, better known as the magician Harry Houdini, was an illusionist born in Hungary in Budapest, when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Houdini’s death occurred on October 31, 1926.
After his death, there were many theories about how Houdini’s death was, since due to the lack of knowledge of the time in the population, many thought that he was poisoned by the spiritualist community since Harry revealed his dirty tricks, or that he was suffocation the cause of his death, it is even said that Houdini’s death occurred when he was unable to make one of his famous escapes and drowned.
Even today it is a mystery to many how Houdini died . Find out how Houdini died by reading this article, clear up your doubts and find out how Houdini really died.
Instructions for was the death of Houdini
- Erik Weisz was born on March 24, 1874 in the capital of Budapest. Erik’s family was Jewish with a very precarious economy, his father was the rabbi of Appleton. When his father took him to enjoy a magic show by a magician who called himself “Doctor Lynn”. Erik was really surprised by this act and wanted to practice magic just like Doctor Lynn did, so Erik and some children from his community entered a show entitled “Ehrich, the Prince of Air”, where their acts were trapeze artist and doing contortions.
- Erik and his family immigrated to the United States when he was 13 years old. Passionate about magic, Erik began to practice it during his spare time. Erik read the book “The Memoirs of Robert Houdini”, a highly prestigious magician from whom Erik felt very inspired and adopted his last name that we now popularly know as Houdini, while the name Harry was taken from another famous magician named Harry Kellar, this is how Erik Weizs later became known as Harry Houdini for these two characters.
- When Erik’s mother died, he felt very heartbroken and began to feel a great revulsion towards the spiritualists, who Houdini was in charge of revealing the kind of tricks and deceptions they used to convince ignorant people that they could have contact with the afterlife. Houdini did not allow this by publicly showing that these people were just charlatans looking for money.
- Houdini was known to have very good health and great physical strength, as well as stamina. This allowed Houdini to perform various magic tricks that are now legendary and still hold true for highly trained magicians. Tricks such as locking himself in a tied trunk and escaping, or being chained inside a water tank, became very popular thanks to him. Houdini could break free from almost anywhere he was supposed to be locked up. Thus he managed to become a very famous magician inside and outside the United States.
- Due to these apparently risky acts of magic, many, not knowing the real version, believed that Houdini drowned because he couldn’t get rid of the handcuffs he had and couldn’t get out of a water tank where he was doing a magic show. However, Houdini’s true death did not occur in this way.
- After one of Harry Houdini’s acts in the city of Montreal, he found himself in a canteen resting from his magic practices while enjoying a drink. Some young university students found him and approached him. As we mentioned earlier, Houdini was well known for his physical strength and stamina, these young students asked if they could put Houdini’s strength and stamina to the test by asking him to be punched in the abdomen. He accepted, but before preparing himself and knowing when he would be hit, one of the young men named William Lances, who was the most famous and trained boxer at his university, threw a punch into Harry’s abdomen. After this Houdini received several more blows against his abdomen.
- The magician managed to pass the blows apparently well, however, something that was not known is that due to the analyzes that the doctors carried out on Harry Houdini’s body after this, it was learned that he had an inflamed appendix for a few days before of the beating incident. In other words, Harry Houdini suffered from appendicitis. When his appendix was inflamed and then received strong blows, Houdini suffered a very serious peritonitis since his appendix suffered a rupture caused by the blows that further inflamed the magician’s organ.
- Houdini, stubborn and perhaps very little aware of his state of health at that time, continued with his magic shows, leaving behind the importance that his pain had. He suffered from a fever and the pain was making him worse to a point where he couldn’t take this state anymore and passed out during a performance.
- Harry Houdini was hospitalized and examined, the diagnosis issued by the doctors who treated him was that Harry suffered from very serious peritonitis, which was the cause of his death. Houdini mentioned to his brother “I feel tired of fighting, it seems that this is going to defeat me”, so nine days after receiving those blows to his abdomen, at just 52 years of age, Harry Houdini died on October 31, year 1926. At his funeral, more than 2000 spectators attended to say their last goodbye.
What do you need for Houdini’s death?
- Read on prestigious and reputable websites about the death of Harry Houdini
Tips for was the death of Houdini
- You can read some curiosities about what happened after Houdini’s death, such as what Houdini’s code was created to show the irrelevance of the spiritualists that he despised so much and why several magicians from around the world meet on October 31 every year to discuss to crack the Houdini code and invoke his spirit.
- You can also search for information about why his wife spent 10 years trying to communicate with him after his death by doing séances.