Harry performed his show that evening in immense agony, and the pain would continue to plague him for the next two days. Image Credit: Bain News Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons It is unknown whether Whitehead believed Houdini to be braced for the impact or whether he had intentionally sought to hurt him, yet his actions that evening would send Houdini’s health on a rapid downward spiral. Laid back on the sofa with a broken ankle, Houdini was unable to stand and protect himself, and the assault only ceased when he began to gesture that he had had enough, gasping that he had not had time to brace himself. Suddenly and forcefully, Whitehead began to punch him hard in the abdomen, delivering ‘hammer-like blows’ upon the magician. Houdini mused that his stomach could withstand a lot. Whitehead reportedly asked Houdini “if he believed in the miracles of the Bible”, and queried whether he could really withstand any blow to the abdomen, as had been previously proclaimed. One of these was 31-year-old Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead. Three students from McGill University arrived at his dressing room, apparently to return a borrowed book. On 22 October 1926, Houdini was relaxing in his dressing room at the Princess Theatre in Montreal, Canada, sifting through his mail and resting his ankle, which he had broken in a show a few days earlier. He died that evening, and four days later his solemn funeral procession wound its way through New York City, attended by over 2,000 mourners.īut after a lifetime of death-defying stunts, what killed Houdini on that fateful Halloween?

On 31 October 1926, world-renowned escape artist Harry Houdini collapsed on stage in Michigan after performing the final show of his life in agony.

Houdini room