The Life And Death Of Harry Houdini

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

There's a strange epilog to the life of Houdini, renowned skeptic and escapologist sans pareil. Before he died, Houdini made an odd pact with his wife, Wilhelmina "Bess" Rahner. He told her he'd do everything in his power to escape the embrace of death by sending her a message from beyond the grave: "Rosabelle Believe," a nod to one of her favorite songs. This odd pact gained much publicity, and according to Skeptical Inquirer, this culminated in a prominent medium and Bess announcing in shared statements to have successfully received the message in a seance. This was later dismissed as a hoax.

Despite this less than desirable press, Bess conducted seances to contact Harry for a decade. In 1936, she made her last failed attempt. According to Time Magazine, she announced, "Ten years is long enough to wait for any man." Despite Bess (kind of understandably) calling it quits, the seance is still going strong. Every year, on the anniversary of Houdini's death, stage-magicians gather to offer Houdini one last chance at stealing the spotlight. It's an odd tribute to a man who spent his life scoffing at performers claiming connection with the beyond. 

Why would Houdini indulge in something he so passionately condemned his whole life? Perhaps he believed that if anyone could wriggle out of death's embrace, it might as well be him? Despite repeated attempts to contact Houdini, to date he has chosen not to comment.

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