So medical examiners are digging up Houdini’s corpse to figure out if he was offed by the Psychic Mafia — an intriguing little conspiracy theory if I ever heard one. It’s not the first time a body has been exhumed for such a purpose, and it certainly won’t be the last. In this case, it may be warranted: after all, Houdini got plenty of death threats from people who were either 1.) whackjobs who thought they could talk to the dead or 2.) con artists in danger of losing their stream of income. Both are sections of the populace highly capable of murder.
Here’s an article on the investigation, and here’s a great site with plenty of Houdini history, including images of his death certificate and news clippings.
Oh… my.
I remember doing a report on Houdini in elementary school. He seemed like an awesome dude. My first real introduction to skeptics and their awesomeness.