Harry Houdini is perhaps the most famous magician–and skeptic–of all time. Escape artist, stage magician, silent movie star, and skeptical investigator of seance mediums and other phonies. This Halloween marks the 100th anniversary of his death.
As the story goes, Houdini, born Erik Weisz in Budapest, bragged about his fitness to take any punch. While in Montreal in October 1926, a college student unexpectedly took that challenge. Houdini died nine days later of a ruptured appendix.
Or is that right? This interesting piece in the New York Times looks at the accepted story with a skeptical eye.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/arts/houdini-death-mystery.html
(no paywall, but you need to create a free account)
The article not only offers an alternative narrative but also suggests that he actually died on October 30, not Halloween.
Houdini has many connections to the national capital area:
• D.C. City Jail / Murderers' Row (January 6, 1906): Stripped, searched, and locked inside Cell No. 2 in the south wing, Houdini escaped in 2 minutes, then unlocked all 17 cells, swapped the positions of the inmates, dressed, and walked out to the warden's office in 21 minutes.
• Tenth Precinct Station House (January 1906): Houdini successfully broke out of a locked cell in the Parkview neighborhood station after being searched and locked in.
• Suspended Straitjacket Stunt (April 19, 1916): Houdini hung suspended upside down in a straitjacket near the Washington Post/Munsey building at Pennsylvania and E Streets NW, drawing massive crowds.
• B.F. Keith's Theater Straitjacket Escape (January 12, 1922): Houdini performed his iconic upside-down straitjacket escape high above the Riggs Building at G and 15th Streets NW (right across from the U.S. Treasury Building – now the location of Old Ebbitt Grill), watched by thousands of spectators. (photo above)
Whatever the circumstances of his death, we know that he bequeathed his personal collection of magic and memorabilia to the Library of Congress. The collection of nearly 4000 books includes a 1651 edition of Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft, perhaps the first book in English to debunk witches and the supernatural in general as sleight-of-hand trickery rather than occult forces.
Penn & Teller, longtime friends of NCAS, made a short video of their visit to the Houdini collection at the Library of Congress. It isn’t exactly historically accurate, but it is fun 3.5 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_PkSfIjlTE
