Why Is Houdinis Body Being Exhumed?
Since Houdini died, there have been a number of conspiracy theories floating around, alleging that he did not, in fact, die of peritonitis as is generally accepted, but was murdered in some fashion. In recent years these theories have gained traction, perhaps due to the publication recently of a biography of the magician which seemed to validate some of the suspicions. Some members of Houdini’s family are now convinced that he was murdered and intend to have his remains exhumed so that they can be subjected to scientific analysis in order to properly determine the cause of death. Suspicion for Houdini’s supposed murder usually falls on spiritualists. For many years Houdini engaged in a kind of war with spiritualists, believing that the so-called mediums who claimed to be able to communicate with the spirits of the deceased were frauds who were exploiting naive and emotionally vulnerable people. Part of Houdini’s standard act in fact involved exposing the kind of tricks which fraudulent
