"The Greatest Paranormal Whistle-blower"

HARRY HOUDINI

"The Greatest Paranormal Whistle-blower"

The term whistle-blower derives from the practice of English bobbies, who would blow their whistles when they noticed the commission of a crime. The whistle would alert both law enforcement officers and the general public of danger. Most whistle-blower's are internal paranormal group whistle-blower's, who report misconduct to a fellow investigator or established ones within our community.

Debunking The Paranormal

I wish I had a nickel for all the people who have come to me telling me secrets of false paranormal investigations that some of our out front greats put forth. Why do they do it? For the truth or personal games? To destroy someone's creditability in the field, or to pump up their own standings. But personally I believe we need tois ying and yang in all areas of the world. Those who believe and those that do not, that's what makes the world go round. Right !?!

So you want to become famous or infamous in the paranormal community?

Becoming a debunker is easy. Easier then becoming well known in the paranormal haunted business field as a legitimate person. It always seems to bring either respect or ridicule to either parties but it certainly shifts the haunted spotlight from one to the other.

Harry Houdini was a spiritualist or paranormal whistle-blower, so are today well known magicians James Randi and Penn Fraser Jillette & Raymond Joseph Teller. They try to expose those fraudulent in the field of the strange weird and debunk the paranormal claims of those that fall under their ever watchful eye. Whistle blowing in the opinion of some is just what the doctor ordered to clear out the unscrupulous Investigators groups and paranormal writers that have mislead the public. But the eye of the public is often blind. Unless you can make a name for yourself.

A recent news article tells of a Dallas Psychiatrist's Paranormal Abilities to be Tested by Noted Debunker James Randi. - During a summer of superhero blockbusters, Dallas psychiatrist Colin A. Ross, M.D. (www.rossinst.com), is perfecting a superpower of his own. Dr. Ross' application to the $1 Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge has been received by the James Randi Educational Foundation (www.randi.org).

Magic Man

Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) whose birth name in Hungary was Erik Weisz (which was changed to Ehrich Weiss when he immigrated to the United States), was a Hungarian American magician, escapologist (widely regarded as one of the greatest ever) and stunt performer, as well as a skeptic and investigator of spiritualists, film producer and actor. Harry Houdini forever changed the world of magic and escapes.

In the 1920s, after the death of his beloved mother, Cecilia, he turned his energies toward debunking self-proclaimed psychics and mediums, a pursuit that would inspire and be followed by later-day conjurers Milbourne Christopher, James Randi, Martin Gardner, P.C. Sorcar, Criss Angel, and Penn and Teller. 

Houdini's magical training allowed him to expose frauds who had successfully fooled many scientists and academics. He was a member of a Scientific American committee which offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural abilities. Thanks to the contributions and skepticism of Houdini and four other committee members, the prize was never collected. 

As his fame as a "ghostbuster" grew, Houdini took to attending séances in disguise, accompanied by a reporter and police officer. Possibly the most famous medium whom he debunked was the Boston medium Mina Crandon, also known as "Margery". 

Houdini chronicled his debunking exploits in his book, A Magician Among the Spirits. But yet Houdini still believed in real ghosts and the afterlife.

These activities cost Houdini the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle, a firm believer in Spiritualism during his later years, refused to believe any of Houdini's exposés. Conan Doyle actually came to believe that Houdini was a powerful spiritualist medium, had performed many of his stunts by means of paranormal abilities and was using these abilities to block those of other mediums that he was 'debunking' (see Conan Doyle's The Edge of The Unknown, published in 1931, after Houdini's death). This disagreement led to the two men becoming public antagonists. 

Houdini demonstrates how a photographer could produce fraudulent "spirit photographs" that documented the apparition and social interaction of deceased individuals

Houdini died of peritonitis resulting from appendicitis in Detroit, Michigan, at Grace Hospital in room 401 at 1:26 P.M. on October 31, 1926, Halloween. He is buried at Machpelah Cemetery, 82-30 Cypress Hills Street, Queens, New York. His entire family is buried there, mother, father, sister and brothers - but not his wife Bess. 

A plot next to Harry was planned for her, but she couldn't be laid to rest there, because Machpelah is a Jewish cemetery, and Bess was Catholic. Bess Houdini died on a train in California enroute to NYC, and is buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Stevens and Bradhurst Avenues, Hawthorne, New York.

An account of Conan Doyle's involvement with the camp of "Margery" and presents personal letters showing that Conan Doyle and Mina's husband strongly believed that revenging spirits (not persons) would soon kill Houdini for hiding the "truth". The book further proposes Conan Doyle's campaign to hijack Houdini's legacy when a Spiritualist minister friend of Conan Doyle, Rev. Arthur Ford , conspired with him to bring messages from Houdini and his mother back from the grave in séances, including one on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel, which would further the Spiritualists' agenda. 

According to the book, Houdini's wife felt so depressed that she actually tried to commit suicide on the eve of the séance. There is no mention of the fact that, twelve days after the séance, Bess Houdini wrote a moving letter to Walter Winchell, the columnist, which was published in the Graphic, denying the words she received from her deceased husband were given to Ford by herself, denying the charge Bess and Ford had conspired together to perform a publicity stunt to further their careers in the entertainment industry. She trusted Ford's reading. Neither is there any mention of the fact that the Houdini code was already widely known by the public months before the séance.

Fearing that spiritualists would exploit his legacy by pretending to contact him after his death, Houdini left his wife a secret code -- ten words chosen at random from a letter written by Conan Doyle -- that he would use to contact her from the afterlife. According to The Secret Life of Houdini, this fear of the Spiritualists was well-founded: Arthur Conan Doyle's campaign to hijack Houdini's legacy came to a head when a Spiritualist minister friend of Conan Doyle, Rev. Arthur Ford, conspired with him to bring alleged messages from Houdini and his mother back from the grave in séances. 

The Secret Life of Houdini alleges that Bess Houdini was ill and self-medicating with alcohol (other accounts add that she was taking pain medication after a bad fall , and Ford may have talked her into conspiring to assist him in creating the impression he had contacted Houdini's spirit. The book also states that Houdini's wife felt so depressed that she actually tried to commit suicide on the eve of the séance.

Ford claimed to have gotten other spirit messages pertaining to Houdini. In 1928, he said he had heard from Houdini's mother, who had said "forgive". However, Bess had mentioned to a reporter the previous year that an authentic message from Cecily would include this word.

At the séance, Ford claimed to have contacted both Houdini and his deceased mother via Ford's spirit guide "Fletcher", and stated that the message received was in the pre-arranged code worked out by Houdini and Bess before Houdini's death. A brief letter supposedly signed by Bess Houdini appeared, which read in full: "Regardless of any statements made to the contrary, I wish to declare that the message, in its entirety, and in the agreed upon sequence, given to me by Arthur Ford, is the correct message pre-arranged between Mr. Houdini and myself." On January 10, 1929, New York Graphic reporter Rea Jaure filed a story entitled "Houdini Message a Big Hoax!" stating that Ford had confessed in an interview to having paid Bess Houdini for her cooperation, but Ford later claimed the interviewee was an impostor. 

Further muddying the waters were Bess Houdini's conflicting statements about the success of Ford's experiments; she is alleged to have written an impassioned letter to the famed columnist Walter Winchell initially defending Ford, and a New York Times article from January 15, 1929 has her responding to rumors that the code had been "leaked" in advance by stating that, "No one but her husband and herself could possibly have known the details of the code. Neither overtly nor covertly could it have been gleaned... To this argument she clung." But by March 18,1930, both the New York Times and Bess Houdini had modified their stance.

"Numerous attempts to convince Mrs. Houdini that her husband is communicating through a medium were made," the Times said, "but she steadfastly denied that any of the mediums presented the clue by which she was to recognize a legitimate message."

Bess Houdini held yearly séances on Halloween for ten years after Houdini's death, but Houdini never appeared. In 1936, after a last unsuccessful séance on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel, she put out the candle that she had kept burning beside a photograph of Houdini since his death, later (1943) saying, "ten years is long enough to wait for any man." The tradition of holding a séance for Houdini continues by magicians throughout the world to this day; the Official Houdini séance is currently organized by Sidney H. Radner.

1936 - On October 31, 1936, Houdini's widow held the "Final Houdini séance" atop of the roof of The Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, California. While Houdini did not come back, a sudden mysterious rain storm after the memorial candle had been extinguished led some press to speculate this was Houdini's way of signaling from beyond the grave. A recording of the séance was made and issued as a record album.

By Mitchell Walker Stone

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