The Secret Life of Houdini

by William Kalush

  Who planted the ruler became a raging debate between the two camps. In 1959, a Houdini biography by William Lindsay Gresham claimed that years after the fact, Houdini’s assistant Collins admitted that Houdini had secreted the ruler into the cabinet. The source of the story was the magician Fred Keating. It was not until our perusal of the files in Margery’s great-granddaughter’s possession that we uncovered the close relationship between Keating and the medium.

  The ruler imbroglio raises a more interesting issue that goes to the heart of both Margery’s and Lady Doyle’s disparate mediumships. To gain insight into their skills, we need look no further than the ventriloquist. At the beginning of an exhibition of ventriloquism, our logical side immediately sees a clearly and unmistakably lifeless figure. Nonetheless, a few minutes into a soundly constructed ventriloquism routine, our emotional side suspends disbelief, short-circuiting our critical and analytical capacities. Now the figure comes alive, sometimes to the bizarre extent that the ventriloquist’s figure has been attacked for something it has said.

  By now, Margery had morphed from a trance medium into a direct or independent voice medium. Proximity to her was now the condition on which the spirit world, in the form of Walter, depended, but his voice was not hers, it emanated from outside her physical form. She was not possessed by him, he just needed her nearby. Over time, Margery’s stamina improved and Walter became capable of all sorts of phenomena. She may have been one of the most versatile mediums in the history of spirit contact.

  As a medium, Margery was a descendant of Eurycles of Greece, the most famous of the pre-Delphic oracles, who had a “demon” voice that emanated from his chest and made oracular predictions. The twentieth-century incarnation of the oracles was decidedly less appealing, and more akin to a carnival sideshow. Walter just performed stunts, like a trick dog. On the rare occasion it was given, his advice was inferior.

  If we agree that Margery and the other mediums who have been caught are one hundred percent pure frauds, then we must examine their voices. Margery had an advantage in that it was even easier for the audience members at her séances to suspend their disbelief since her performance took place under pitch-black conditions. There was no way to scrutinize her lips. During the progression of her mediumship, Crandon cronies built scientific-looking machines that were meant to control her breath, proving that Walter’s voice was truly independent. The machines were impressive-looking but bogus—a piece of gum secreted in her mouth could short-circuit the entire control.

  Margery and Crandon demonstrated that they had a diabolical understanding of the psychology of magic. They knew that her séance was a performance. More than once Margery and Crandon disagreed and Walter sided with Crandon. This brilliant device has the effect of undermining the sitter’s natural intuition. We all innately know that sane people don’t argue with themselves. We are smoothly lulled into accepting Walter as real.

  Occasionally clues are unintentionally left, as in the case of Walter complaining of sabotage. On the first occasion Walter demanded that the bell box be removed to the light and examined, something was wrong. Perhaps this was a setup by the Crandons to implicate Houdini; perhaps Houdini did try to rig the switch. It can’t be known. During the next day’s séance, Margery made a tactical blunder. As soon as the lights went out, Walter screamed bloody murder, accusing Houdini of planting the ruler in the box. For eighty years the power of the ventriloquist’s suspension has clouded this story. Biographers have both accused Houdini and acquitted him with no proof, only anecdotal evidence. If we allow only our rational brain to look at the situation, we can cut through the fog. In the séance room that night, Margery entered the box in the light, her arms were pushed through the side holes, and the top was closed around her neck. She never had use of her hands in the box; they were being vigilantly held by Houdini and Dr. Prince. Yet as soon the lights were out, Walter appeared and accused Houdini of planting a ruler. If we realize that Walter doesn’t exist, we must ask ourselves: How does Margery know that a ruler is under her cushion? It’s a folding carpenter’s ruler, something that would, by using her toes, feel like a nondescript rectangular object. In the dark, nestled under the pillow, there was no way that she could have known what it was if she hadn’t brought it in or known in advance it would be in the box.

  Margery knew there was no Walter, just as Lady Doyle knew there was no Pheneas.

  Six months before his arrival, Conan Doyle had written and commented on a controversial English medium named William Hope, the head of the “Crewe Circle” that Houdini had dispatched DeVega to spy on. “Hope is a perfectly genuine medium…but he is a fanatic, and in my opinion would do anything his ‘guides’ had ordered him to do.” Suddenly Conan Doyle had his own spirit guide, who came to him through his wife’s hand, and he began doing everything his guide commanded.

  Doyle’s earlier advocacy of the fairy photographs had been a stunning blow to his credibility. Some critics suggested that he was more like Dr. Watson than Sherlock Holmes. With his reputation in jeopardy, Lady Doyle shrewdly realized that Sir Arthur, incredulous and stubborn, literally needed a control. Another miscue like endorsing patently faked photographs of children’s book fairies and goblins illustrations could turn him into a laughingstock and ruin his reputation. One way to prevent that and to prevent him from being exploited by devious mediums would be to channel the vast majority of his communications with the spirit world in the home circle. That goal was accomplished when she developed her talent for automatic writing. It was reinforced when she introduced Sir Arthur’s guide, Pheneas. It’s no coincidence that the first words out of Pheneas’s mouth were “We are brothers” and “Your wife is invaluable to us.” Coincidence, like Houdini said, is a kindlier word. Deliberate mystification is more accurate.

  The next afternoon, Munn, Prince, Houdini, and Margery had lunch together at a restaurant in a Boston suburb. Houdini was scheduled to play a vaudeville engagement in Boston in a few weeks, and Margery was fearful that he would denounce her as a fraud from the stage.

  “If you misrepresent me from the stage at Keith’s some of my friends will come up and give you a good beating,” Margery said.

  This was no idle threat. Margery devotee Joe DeWyckoff had a history of violence, once stalking and smashing his walking stick over the head of a man who had offended him and then continuing to rain punches on the man’s face before they were separated.

  “I am not going to misrepresent you,” Houdini replied. “They are not coming on the stage and I am not going to get a beating.”

  “Then it is your wits against mine,” she said, and gave Houdini a “furtive” look. “How would it look for my twelve year old son to grow up and read that his mother was a fraud?”

  “Then don’t be a fraud,” Houdini suggested.

  That night, a new control box was tried. It was Comstock’s invention and it was for solus sittings. Both the medium and the observer, sitting opposite each other, would put their feet into the contraption, which covered half of their shins. A board was then locked in place, making any foot movement impossible. The committee sat for an hour, waiting for something to happen, to no avail. Margery was running out of time to make her case before these men.

  “Houdini, I wish you would go into a trance state,” Margery said.

  Then the dour Dr. Crandon spoke up. “Some day, Houdini, you will see the light and if it were to occur this evening, I would gladly give ten thousand dollars to charity.”

  “It may happen,” Houdini shrugged. “But I doubt it.”

  “Yes sir, if you were converted this evening I would willingly give $10,000 to some charity.”

  Houdini wasn’t converted, Walter couldn’t come through, and the séance ended a few minutes later.

  The next night, Walter was feeling his oats in the séance room. Before his friendly circle, he was hailed for forever discrediting Houdini as a psychic researcher. The official record reflects that Walter “had quite a lot to say about Houdini a
nd the jolts Walter might give him every day, reminding him of the curse he had hurled at him. He said that if Houdini said anything false on the stage, Walter would finish him.”

  On the same day that Margery was threatening to have Houdini beaten up, Conan Doyle was composing another letter to Crandon. They had been exchanging almost daily letters by now. Doyle thanked Crandon for the successive séance reports and then turned to Houdini. “Something will happen to that man H. You mark my words. Better to get between the metals when an express is due, than block the way of the spirit. I could give many examples. Did you ever hear of the death of Podmore!” Frank Podmore was an English writer who wrote many books on Spiritualism, none quite rabid enough for Sir Arthur’s taste. He drowned in August of 1910, with some people speculating that his death was a suicide.

  With the failure of Margery to produce at these crucial sittings, the Crandon camp went into damage control mode. The good doctor wrote letters to the leading Spiritualists around the world, trumpeting Houdini’s total “exposure” by Walter. When Carrington heard the séance reports he was aghast at Houdini’s cagelike restraint but overjoyed at Walter’s attack. “I would have given a lot to have been present at that sitting when H. wept!” he wrote Crandon.

  The Crandon camp began to think that Houdini had somehow tricked the cabinet-box. After getting carbons of the sittings, DeWyckoff wrote Crandon with a suggestion. “All circumstances, from every angle, point to Houdini’s guilt and there is not a doubt in my mind but that he is guilty in both instances—viz. ‘planting’ the rubber and the ruler!…I feel deeply for you and Mrs. Crandon and for the cause of ‘Truth’ and it is a pity that Walter had seen fit to mitigate or withdraw the curse. ‘Truth’ was shrieking when Walter used the only forcible language accessible and applicable to a cad like Houdini under the circumstances…. We must all now use our best judgment—individually and collectively as to what to do in the immediate future…It occurs to me that of moment we ought to try and ascertain who actually constructed the box for Houdini and let me interview him or ‘reach’ him.”

  Crandon responded and assured DeWyckoff that the curse on Houdini was still in place. “We are quite content, even jubilant, over the issue, so don’t feel sorry for us. Walter did not mitigate or withdraw his curse. He only withdrew the individual words which might not be published, and distinctly said that all the rest was to remain.” Then he invited DeWyckoff to Boston to discuss strategy.

  Houdini’s box was also on Doyle’s mind. He called it a mystery, but he had some advice on how to get to the bottom of it—they should ‘reach’ Dr. Comstock’s assistant. “If Conant would quarrel with Houdini or if he were amenable to persuasion of any sort we should get at the facts,” he urged Crandon. What sort of persuasion, he left to the good doctor’s imagination.

  On September 5, Pheneas decided to comment on the situation in Boston.

  “There is a great deal going on in America at present…. The evil forces are very strong, but the forces of light are stronger. Truth always prevails. Houdini is going rapidly to his Waterloo. He is exposed. Great will be his downfall before he descends into the darkness of oblivion. He has caused a terrible fate…. Prince will not be far behind him. They will be centres of evil, like a whirlpool with its eddies, dashing humans to destruction.”

  This was even before Doyle had received word from Crandon that Walter had claimed to expose Houdini. A few days later, Doyle asked for more information about the Crandons.

  Lady Doyle threw up her hand.

  “Houdini is doomed, doomed!” Pheneas almost shouted. “A terrible future awaits him. He has done untold harm. It will not be long first. His fate is at hand. He, and all who uphold him, will be, as it were, chained together and cast into the sea. Your friends the Crandons will even in this world reap the reward of their brave work…. In the fearful crisis which is soon to come, America in her sore need will find that she has here a sure and well tested bridge to that spirit world…. They will play a great part in the crisis and it is then that they willfully come into their own.”

  Doyle wrote Crandon and reported Pheneas’s conversation. As if to underscore it, on September 11, Lady Doyle wrote directly to Margery. “My husband’s fine guide told us that all that you have done is going to have very great results in the future…. When the…upheaval comes to the world and America is stricken, as she will be…you will be a great centre…and they will flock to you as a bridge of knowledge & hope & comfort…We were also told that Houdini is doomed & that he will soon go down to the black regions which his work against Spiritualism will bring him as his punishment.”

  This exchange of information among the mediums is significant. Sir Arthur believes what he’s told. Lady Doyle and Margery, however, are the women behind the curtains. Lady Doyle is writing to Margery in code. They can’t be overt because it’s always possible to have a letter intercepted. Lady Doyle’s message could be decoded as “You have doomed Houdini on your side, I have done likewise. Between the two of us, the word will get out and this bastard who is standing in our way will get exactly what’s coming to him.”

  Houdini seemed circumspect during his September engagement in Boston. He confided in Prince that he was beginning to believe that Crandon was actively “aiding and abetting” his wife in the séance room but whenever the press asked him about the recent sittings, he declined comment. He even spurned an invitation to meet Margery when she phoned him during his Keith’s stay. The only thing new about his half-hour vaudeville turn was his thinning hair and the extra few pounds in his midriff. The motion picture that warmed up the audience was taken eighteen years earlier when he dove into the Seine and escaped the gendarmes. Then he did his Needle Mystery, brought Bess out of retirement once again for the Metamorphosis, and closed by escaping from a straitjacket.

  Houdini’s reluctance to comment on the Margery case seemed strategic. A few months later, he had self-published a pink pamphlet called “Houdini Exposes the Tricks Used by the Boston Medium ‘Margery’ to Win the $2500 Prize Offered by the Scientific American.” In the pamphlet, which was chock-full of photos and line drawings of the séances, Houdini opened up. “I charge Mrs. Crandon with practicing her feats daily like a professional conjurer. Also that because of her training as a secretary, her long experience as a professional musician, and her athletic build she is not simple and guileless but a shrewd, cunning woman, resourceful in the extreme, and taking advantage of every opportunity to produce a ‘manifestation.’”

  When Prohibition came, the loss of business caused Frank Brophy to close down his Hotel Princeton in Princeton-by-the-Sea, a picturesque seaside town about thirty miles south of San Francisco. Ironically enough, the tiny town boasted three piers in 1924, and they were in constant use to bring in the bootleg booze that was flowing up from Los Angeles. This process wasn’t as easy as it sounds with the California Prohibition director taking a proactive stance against this kind of smuggling, but even the bootleggers wouldn’t think that the authorities would send a swimmer into the frigid nighttime October waters to reconnoiter their “rumrunners” and report back. What human could possibly withstand that cold water for that long and not get hypothermia?

  As if he didn’t have enough to do battling the Margery crowd and crisscrossing the country lecturing on the evils of phony mediums, Houdini was now back working for the government. In the February 17, 1967 edition of the Oakland Tribune, two longtime Bay Area residents were interviewed and they reminisced about their star-studded past. Hattie Mooser, along with her sister Minnie, had run a famous restaurant during Prohibition that all the visiting entertainers frequented. Their brothers George and Leon managed many famous magicians and were some of the men who encouraged Houdini when he was just starting out. According to Hattie, Houdini was visiting the restaurant one night when he pulled her out, hailed a cab, and directed the driver to cruise down to the waterfront so Houdini could point out where he had done some missions for the government. “Not many people knew it but H
oudini helped the Coast Guard round up a ring of rum runners. They often asked him to assist an investigation because he was such a good swimmer and had trained himself to withstand cold. He would swim out to a suspected rum runner’s boat, look around, and report back to the authorities.”

  This information was confirmed by an escape artist and Houdini buff who befriended the Moosers in the sixties. Both of the sisters told him that Houdini had worked for the Secret Service and had drawn on those experiences for his movie Haldane of the Secret Service. According to the women, Houdini’s skills as an illusionist who worked with equipment that contained hidden compartments was valuable to the government in assessing how the rumrunners were bringing their contraband onshore. Houdini’s interest in smuggling went back to his early days in Europe when he filed reports back via his Dramatic Mirror column. On January 8, 1904, writing from Scotland, he reported that a New York gang was smuggling jewels to the United States from Germany and France in tin boxes stuffed into the cadavers of Americans who had died in those countries.

  Houdini may have had another connection to the rumrunning gangs that he was surveilling for the government. Many California millionaires, some of them in the budding movie business, were the financial angels for a bootlegging ring that smuggled rum over the Mexican border using not only coast-hugging ships but airplanes too.

  Hattie often alluded to having an affair with Houdini. Even at ninety, in the small apartment she shared with her sister in Westlake, she kept a life-size autographed photo of him on her wall. “Houdini is mine!” she told the reporter. She might have cryptically revealed her liaison when she told another reporter that she and Bess watched as Houdini dangled headfirst nine stories above the ground on March 27, 1923, doing a straitjacket escape in front of the Tribune building. “Bess took my hand and her nails dug into my palm,” Hattie remembered. “It surprised me and I asked her what on earth was wrong. ‘It’s such a little bit of a thing, you’ve seen him do much more dangerous things,’ I told her. Bess held my hand tightly and said, ‘Yes, he has many tricks but he only has one heart.’”