Houdini expert Patrick Culliton has posted on his website a photo said to be of Houdini in death. Says Patrick:
“The photo is of the dead Houdini in the coffin he used in Worcester, the one that didn't go back to New Jersey with the rest of the props.
In the photo [...] Houdini is dead. You can clearly see his hands, and I recognize them. You can also just make out his nostrils. It must have been taken either before the body was shipped from Detroit or after it arrived in NY and was placed in the bronze coffin."
Patrick says he received the photo from Jon Oliver.
“Jon Oliver is a Michigan magician/escape artist who is very knowledgeable about Houdini. He persisted in trying to get to know Houdini relatives like Ruth Kavanaugh and Harry Hardeen, and, eventually, they talked to him.
One of Bessie's relatives, I think it was her niece, Ruth, gave Jon that photo of Houdini's body in the coffin he had made for the underwater tests.”
Quite an eerie, and grisly, discovery.
UPDATE: It's now possible this is a photo of Houdini (alive) performing a publicity stunt in Worcester MA in 1926. Click to read: Uncovering Houdini's THIRD air-tight container test and death casket.
Has anyone noticed that on the right index finger there is a thin-banded ring? I'm not sure it has been mentioned before, I blew it up in Photoshop and messed with the contrast, it's very obvious. If I could get a higher resolution scan of this image, I could make it more clear and share. It's sitting high up on that finger, almost to the first bend, so if it's not a ring, I'm not sure what it is. But it is surely there.
ReplyDeleteI do not see a face, chin or nose, even in Photoshop.