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Speaker 1: Pushkin. This is the final episode of a three part series.

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Speaker 1: You can enjoy it on a standalone basis, but if

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Speaker 1: you've not heard episodes one and two, you might prefer

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Speaker 1: to listen to them first. Rose Mackenberg picked up her

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Speaker 1: morning newspaper, saw the headline on the front page, and

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Speaker 1: choked on her coffee.

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Speaker 2: She was genuinely staggered.

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Speaker 1: She later wrote, if this was true, it.

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Speaker 3: Was the story of the century, an actual, factual miracle.

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Speaker 1: The headline Houdini sends from grave, the word he promised wife.

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Speaker 1: The date was January the ninth, nineteen twenty nine. Two

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Speaker 1: in a bit years had passed since the death of

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Speaker 1: Harry Houdini at the age of just fifty two. Rose

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Speaker 1: Mackenberg had worked for Houdini as his chief investigator of

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Speaker 1: fraudulent mediums, as Houdini transformed himself from a magician and

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Speaker 1: escape artist into a crusader for critical thinking about supernatural ideas,

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Speaker 1: in particular the fast growing religion of spiritualism, with its

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Speaker 1: claim to enable communication between the living and the dead.

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Speaker 1: Rose read the article in her newspaper. Houdini and his

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Speaker 1: wife Bess had a secret code, It said, the previous dad,

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Speaker 1: the medium arthur Ford had visited Bess and delivered her

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Speaker 1: a message in the Secret Code. Having thus established his identity,

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Speaker 1: Harry went.

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Speaker 4: On, spare no time or money to undo my attitude

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Speaker 4: of doubt. While on earth, place the truth before all

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Speaker 4: those who have lost the faith. Tell the world there

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Speaker 4: is no death. Tell the world that Harry Houdini lives

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Speaker 4: and will prove it a thousand times.

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Speaker 1: Hmm. That sounded suspiciously like just what a spiritualist minister

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Speaker 1: would want the ghost of Harry Houdini to say. But

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Speaker 1: what about that secret code? The newspaper carried a statement

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Speaker 1: by Bess.

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Speaker 3: I wish to declare that the message is a correct

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Speaker 3: message pre arranged between mister Houdini and myself. Beatrice Houdini.

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Speaker 1: Rose Mackenberg didn't dismiss the idea that there was life

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Speaker 1: after death. She was smart, skeptical, and open minded. That's

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Speaker 1: why Houdini trusted her. As Rose said, he wanted to believe,

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Speaker 1: he thought, but one.

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Speaker 2: Thing truth.

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Speaker 1: Still, though surely not.

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Speaker 5: For a flash.

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Speaker 3: Even my composure was shaken, and then my memory began

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Speaker 3: to function.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening to cautionary tales. In

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Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen twenty six, Harry Houdini should have

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Speaker 1: been having arrest. Had just been to Washington, d C.

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Speaker 1: Giving evidence at raucous congressional hearings into a bill that

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Speaker 1: proposed to ban mediums. In autumn, he'd be embarking on

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Speaker 1: a grueling five month coast to coast tour from Boston

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Speaker 1: to Providence, Albany, Schenectady, Montreal, Detroit. Houdini was getting older,

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Speaker 1: but he couldn't stop touring. He needed the money. It's

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Speaker 1: not that he had expensive tastes in things like food

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Speaker 1: or clothes. Growing up in poverty had left him with

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Speaker 1: frugal habits, so much so Bess had to periodically retire

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Speaker 1: his tatteoust underwear and slip new ones into the drawer

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Speaker 1: without telling him. The drain on his resources was what

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Speaker 1: he saw as his sacred duty, his crusade for critical thinking.

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Speaker 1: He was spending tens of thousands of dollars a year

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Speaker 1: millions in today's money, on his team of psychic investigators

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Speaker 1: headed by Rose Mackenberg, and lawyers to fight off an

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Speaker 1: endless stream of lawsuits as the fraudulent mediums he exposed

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Speaker 1: sued him for slander. Sure he'd win the lawsuits. They

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Speaker 1: were stressful and expensive, nonetheless, but the plan for arrest

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Speaker 1: hit a snag when Houdini heard about the latest stage

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Speaker 1: sensation in New York, a self styled Egyptian fekia whose

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Speaker 1: showpiece was to survive being sealed in an air tight casket. This,

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Speaker 1: claimed the Fekia, was due to his unique ability to

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Speaker 1: enter into a special state he called cataleptic anesthesia. Houdini

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Speaker 1: was irked. This was uncomfortably close to his wheelhouse, being

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Speaker 1: confined in a tight space and getting out alive and

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Speaker 1: cataleptic anesthesia was mumbo jumbo. Anyone could train themselves to

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Speaker 1: survive on little air for a while if they were

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Speaker 1: fit enough and disciplined enough to take short, calm, shallow breaths.

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Speaker 1: Hoodini issued a challenge, however long this fekir survives in

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Speaker 1: a sealed coffin, I'll do it for longer. The fakir

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Speaker 1: called the city's media to a swimming pool to lay

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Speaker 1: down his marker. He had himself soldered in a zinc coffin,

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Speaker 1: which was submerged in the pool by six men standing

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Speaker 1: on it. After fifty nine minutes, they cut open the coffin.

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Speaker 1: He was alive, Houdini called the Press to another swimming

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Speaker 1: pool and had himself soldered into a bronze coffin that

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Speaker 1: had had specially made A telephone wire poking through the

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Speaker 1: lid would let him call for help if he needed it.

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Speaker 1: A half hour passed, an hour and a quarter. It

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Speaker 1: was hot in this swimming pool. The temperature inside the

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Speaker 1: coffin neared one hundred degrees. If I'd die, Podini had

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Speaker 1: said beforehand to the assembled Press.

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Speaker 5: It will be the will of God and my own foolishness.

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Speaker 1: Hoodini wasn't as fit as he used to be. He'd

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Speaker 1: put on twenty pounds since his younger days. Yes, he'd

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Speaker 1: just put himself through a vigorous workout regime to get

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Speaker 1: back in shape. But had he done enough. After an

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Speaker 1: hour and twenty eight minutes, Hoodini started to feel himself

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Speaker 1: drifting off.

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Speaker 5: Bring me up in two minutes, he.

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Speaker 1: Breathed into the phone line. They did. The soul That

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Speaker 1: coffin lid was peeled back like a sardine can reveal

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Speaker 1: Houdini caked in sweat, deathly white, but alive, pulse racing.

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Speaker 1: He hadn't just beaten the Fekiir's record. He had obliterated it.

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Speaker 1: Hoodini might have been sanguine about the prospect of accidentally

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Speaker 1: dying in one of his own stunts, but another kind

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Speaker 1: of threat to his life made him increasingly paranoid.

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Speaker 5: They're going to kill me.

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Speaker 1: Houdini had taken to calling a friend at all hours

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Speaker 1: of the day and night.

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Speaker 6: Don't laugh every night.

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Speaker 2: They're holding seances and praying for my death.

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Speaker 1: Spiritualist mediums did keep predicting Whodini's imminent demise. That's got

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Speaker 1: to be unsettling. When does a prediction become a veiled threat?

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Speaker 1: And those lawsuits were mounting up. No sooner had Houdini

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Speaker 1: embarked on his big autumn tour than he had to

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Speaker 1: travel back overnight to New York for an urgent meeting

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Speaker 1: with his lawyer, and then another overnight train to Albany

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Speaker 1: to get straight back on stage. And in Albany disaster,

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Speaker 1: Houdini was performing his trademark Chinese water torture escape. His

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Speaker 1: feet were clamped in wooden stocks and he was hoisted

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Speaker 1: upside down then lowered into a cabinet filled with water.

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Speaker 1: But as he dangled in the air, the stocks cracked

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Speaker 1: and fractured. Houdini's ankle. He finished the show on one

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Speaker 1: leg and hobbled through the rest of his stint in Albany,

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Speaker 1: Schenectady and on to Montreal. Nearing the end of his run.

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Speaker 1: In Montreal, Houdini was in his dressing room, reclining on

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Speaker 1: a couch to rest his healing ankle and amiably chatting

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Speaker 1: to two young students, an artist and his friend. The

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Speaker 1: artist was sketching Houdini's portrait. A third student came into

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Speaker 1: the room, not known to the first two. He'd borrowed

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Speaker 1: a book from Houdini, and he'd come to give it back.

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Speaker 1: The new arrival seemed to be annoyingly lacking in social awareness.

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Speaker 1: He dominated the conversation, bombarding Houdini with question after unrelated question.

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Speaker 4: Is it true, mister Houdini, that you can resist the

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Speaker 4: hardest blows struck to the abdomen?

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Speaker 1: Houdini tactfully tried to deflect. Fill my muscles, ha, they

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Speaker 1: are like iron. The three students took turns to feel

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Speaker 1: Houdini's arms. They were indeed like iron.

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Speaker 4: But would you mind if I delivered a few blows

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Speaker 4: to your abdomen, mister Houdini.

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Speaker 1: Houdini clearly wasn't in the mood to be hit in

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Speaker 1: the abdomen, but the student wasn't getting it, and Houdini's

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Speaker 1: ego was a powerful thing, all right, he said. He

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Speaker 1: began to shift on the couch so he could stand

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Speaker 1: up and brace himself, but the student didn't wait. He

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Speaker 1: stood over the couch, pummeling Houdini in the stomach. Blow

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Speaker 1: after crunching blow, the artist's friend leaped up. What are

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Speaker 1: you doing? Are you crazy? Houdini raised a hand.

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Speaker 3: That will do.

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Speaker 1: The artist finished his portrait and presented it to Houdini.

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Speaker 5: You make me look a little tired in this picture.

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Speaker 5: The truth is I don't feel so well.

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Speaker 1: By nighttime, Houdini was complaining of crippling pains in his stomach,

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Speaker 1: but he had the final shows in Montreal to get through,

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Speaker 1: and then an overnight train to try, then straight on

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Speaker 1: stage for another show in Detroit. He can barely stand,

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Speaker 1: touching his side two weak to complete a simple magic

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Speaker 1: trick of pulling a silk streamer from a bowl. When

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Speaker 1: the curtain falls, Houdini collapses. He's running a fever of

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Speaker 1: one hundred and four by the time he gets to

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Speaker 1: hospital and the surgeon opens him up an infection that

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Speaker 1: began in his appendix has spread to the lining of

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Speaker 1: his stomach. Hoodini's insides are a mass of pass in

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Speaker 1: a world before antibiotics, this isn't survivable. Hoodini holds on

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Speaker 1: for a few more days.

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Speaker 5: I suppose we'll get over this waveiness in no time

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Speaker 5: until at last, Yes, I'm all through Friday.

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Speaker 1: They're going to kill me, Houdini had said, had he

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Speaker 1: been right to fear that his spiritualist enemies had been

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Speaker 1: not just predicting his death but plotting it. Maybe, but

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Speaker 1: punching someone in the stomach is hardly a reliable way

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Speaker 1: to kill them. Even in hindsight. We don't know if

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Speaker 1: those punches made any difference, or if Houdini was already

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Speaker 1: suffering from a burst appendix. It seems more likely that

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Speaker 1: what's true of Houdini's death is true perhaps of death

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Speaker 1: more generally. There is no deeper narrative that makes sense

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Speaker 1: of it all, much as we'd love to believe there is.

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Speaker 1: It's all just chance and happenstance. Harry Houdini died on

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Speaker 1: the thirty first of October nineteen twenty six. He was

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Speaker 1: buried in the Bronze coffin it had made for his

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Speaker 1: swimming pool stunt. But from that coffin would he discover

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Speaker 1: a telephone line to the living Cautionary tales will be

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Speaker 1: back after the break. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the great

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Speaker 1: author and famous spiritualist, had a curious kind of friendship

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Speaker 1: with Harry Houdini. They kept up a cordial private correspondence

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Speaker 1: for some time after they started bitterly ripping into each

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Speaker 1: other in public. The two men fascinated each other. Houdini

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Speaker 1: was intrigued by how someone as obviously smart as Sir

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Speaker 1: Arthur could be so credulous. He believed in fairies and

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Speaker 1: goblins for goodness sake. As for Sir Arthur, he was

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Speaker 1: convinced that Houdini himself had supernatural powers. How else could

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Speaker 1: he manage his astonishing tricks and escapes. When he heard

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Speaker 1: of Houdini's death, Conan Doyle put out a statement, his.

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Speaker 2: Death is a great shock and a deep mystery to me.

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Speaker 2: I greatly admired him and cannot understand how the end

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Speaker 2: came for one so youthful.

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Speaker 1: In private, though Conan Doyle wasn't shocked at all, his.

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Speaker 2: Death was most certainly decreed from the other side.

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Speaker 1: After all, thought Sir Arthur. If Houdini had been hiding

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Speaker 1: the help he got from the spirit world, while at

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Speaker 1: the same time cruelly mocking the mediums who brought messages

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Speaker 1: from the spirit world, well it stands to reason that

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Speaker 1: the spirits would be incensed. Still, Conan Oyle spied an opportunity.

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Speaker 1: He'd always hoped to persuade Houdini to admit that he

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Speaker 1: was in fact a powerful spirit medium himself. Perhaps he'd

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Speaker 1: have better luck in recruiting Houdini to the cause now

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Speaker 1: that Houdini was dead. He began writing letters to Houdini's widow, Bess.

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Speaker 2: I am sorry that shadows grew up between.

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Speaker 3: Us, my dear Sir Arthur. Bess replied, Houdini would have

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Speaker 3: been the happiest man in the world had he been

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Speaker 3: able to agree with your views.

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Speaker 1: Conan Oyle turned on the flattery.

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Speaker 2: Any man who wins the love and respect of a

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Speaker 2: good woman must himself be a fine and honest man.

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Speaker 1: Bess began to open up.

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Speaker 3: If only you knew how my heart yearns to hear

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Speaker 3: the precious message from my beloved.

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Speaker 2: I am quite sure, Knowing has determined character that he

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Speaker 2: will get back to you.

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Speaker 1: Every day Bess sat and stared at Houdini's picture. If

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00:17:24,330 --> 00:17:28,330
Speaker 1: only he could speak. She announced a prize of ten

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars for anyone who could send her a message

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00:17:32,010 --> 00:17:36,610
Speaker 1: she'd recognize as having come from Houdini. That went about

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00:17:36,610 --> 00:17:40,330
Speaker 1: as well as you'd expect. Every crank in the country

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00:17:40,410 --> 00:17:45,370
Speaker 1: sent in messages purportedly from Houdini, saying things like God

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Speaker 1: is Truth, God is Love, and tussel with death was agony.

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Speaker 1: With every new message, Bess became more despondent.

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Speaker 3: Houdini was an unusually intelligent man. All these messages, without exception,

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Speaker 3: have been silly.

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Speaker 1: Sir Arthur kept writing. He might be a laughing stock

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Speaker 1: in some circles. He had just published a second edition

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Speaker 1: of his much ridiculed book, The Coming of the Fairies,

229
00:18:19,130 --> 00:18:22,810
Speaker 1: but the author of the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries still had

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Speaker 1: away with words in his speeches on spiritualism. He could

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Speaker 1: be very persuasive as a journalist. Once remarked Conan Doyle

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Speaker 1: could sell you a house with its roof missing by

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Speaker 1: means of an eloquent and sustained eulogy of the features

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Speaker 1: that remained. In one letter, Bess mentioned that a mirror

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Speaker 1: had fallen from the wall and smashed. Might that have

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Speaker 1: some kind of significance? So Arthur jumped on the suggestion.

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Speaker 2: I think the mirror incident shows every sign of being

238
00:18:58,090 --> 00:19:02,290
Speaker 2: a message. After all, such things don't happen elsewhere. No

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00:19:02,530 --> 00:19:05,890
Speaker 2: mirror has ever broken in this house. Why should yours

240
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Speaker 2: do so?

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00:19:07,850 --> 00:19:10,770
Speaker 1: So, arthur fear eye is that if the spirits were

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Speaker 1: cross with Houdini for denying his supernatural powers in his lifetime,

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00:19:15,690 --> 00:19:18,650
Speaker 1: they may now be temporarily forbidding him to get clear

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00:19:18,690 --> 00:19:22,130
Speaker 1: messages back as a kind of punishment. And if that

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00:19:22,250 --> 00:19:27,530
Speaker 1: was happening, how might Houdini express his frustration fus by

246
00:19:27,570 --> 00:19:28,450
Speaker 1: smashing a mirror?

247
00:19:29,210 --> 00:19:32,730
Speaker 2: It is just the sort of energetic thing one could

248
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Speaker 2: expect from him.

249
00:19:34,650 --> 00:19:38,570
Speaker 1: So Arthur had trained the full force of his persuasive

250
00:19:38,730 --> 00:19:43,770
Speaker 1: powers onto the grief stricken Bess Houdini. What a coup

251
00:19:43,970 --> 00:19:46,770
Speaker 1: it would be if he could get her to publicly

252
00:19:46,850 --> 00:19:51,290
Speaker 1: state that Houdini had returned. But even Sir Arthur could

253
00:19:51,290 --> 00:19:54,610
Speaker 1: see he'd need something more than a smashed mirror to

254
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Speaker 1: convince the skeptics. As he wrote to a spiritualist friend.

255
00:19:59,290 --> 00:20:02,610
Speaker 7: I am in quite intimate touch with missus h who

256
00:20:02,690 --> 00:20:06,090
Speaker 7: was a splendid, loyal little woman. She seems quite to

257
00:20:06,170 --> 00:20:08,930
Speaker 7: accept our point of view, but does keen on getting

258
00:20:09,090 --> 00:20:11,410
Speaker 7: some evidence which she can give to the world.

259
00:20:18,010 --> 00:20:23,850
Speaker 1: Just afternoon on January eighth, nineteen twenty nine, the charming

260
00:20:24,090 --> 00:20:30,210
Speaker 1: young medium arthur Ford arrived at Bess Houdini's house. Some

261
00:20:30,290 --> 00:20:33,890
Speaker 1: of arthur Ford's followers came with him. Some of Bess's

262
00:20:33,890 --> 00:20:38,930
Speaker 1: friends were there, and two journalists. Bess was lying on

263
00:20:39,010 --> 00:20:42,930
Speaker 1: a sofa, covered in a blanket with a bandaged head

264
00:20:43,490 --> 00:20:47,850
Speaker 1: she'd fallen over at a New Year's party. Arthur Ford

265
00:20:47,930 --> 00:20:52,690
Speaker 1: sat down, wrapped a silk blindfold around his eyes, and

266
00:20:52,730 --> 00:20:53,770
Speaker 1: began to shake.

267
00:20:55,050 --> 00:21:01,570
Speaker 2: Hoodini is here. He tells me to say hello, best sweetheart.

268
00:21:02,330 --> 00:21:08,450
Speaker 2: He wants me to give you these words Rosa bel answer, Tell, pray, answer,

269
00:21:08,850 --> 00:21:14,170
Speaker 2: look book, tell, answer, answer tell. He wants you to

270
00:21:14,210 --> 00:21:15,810
Speaker 2: tell him whether they are right or not.

271
00:21:17,490 --> 00:21:18,810
Speaker 3: Yes, they are.

272
00:21:20,210 --> 00:21:22,610
Speaker 2: He tells you to take off your wedding ring and

273
00:21:22,690 --> 00:21:24,410
Speaker 2: tell them what rosa bell means.

274
00:21:25,810 --> 00:21:32,330
Speaker 1: Bess removed her wedding ring. Inside was inscribed the word Rosabel.

275
00:21:33,410 --> 00:21:38,210
Speaker 1: It was their song, she explained, way back when they

276
00:21:38,370 --> 00:21:39,090
Speaker 1: first met.

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00:21:41,050 --> 00:21:48,170
Speaker 3: Rouse see sweet Rosea Bell. I love her more than

278
00:21:48,450 --> 00:21:49,890
Speaker 3: I can tell.

279
00:21:51,730 --> 00:21:58,330
Speaker 1: Than the secret code answer tell, pray answer look tell

280
00:21:58,890 --> 00:22:06,450
Speaker 1: answer answer, Tell what was that about? Back when Bess

281
00:22:06,490 --> 00:22:10,770
Speaker 1: and Houdini had been performing mind reading the circus, They'd

282
00:22:10,810 --> 00:22:14,690
Speaker 1: devised a way to communicate. They picked out some words

283
00:22:14,730 --> 00:22:17,810
Speaker 1: that wouldn't look incongruous in the context of their act,

284
00:22:18,490 --> 00:22:23,290
Speaker 1: and made each correspond to a number. Answer was two,

285
00:22:23,930 --> 00:22:29,730
Speaker 1: tell was five, and so on. Bess might, for example,

286
00:22:30,050 --> 00:22:32,890
Speaker 1: ask someone in the audience to guess a number and

287
00:22:32,890 --> 00:22:36,490
Speaker 1: write it down for her. Then Bess would call out

288
00:22:36,530 --> 00:22:38,330
Speaker 1: to Houdini something like.

289
00:22:39,490 --> 00:22:42,370
Speaker 3: Pray, tell what the answer is? Speak quickly.

290
00:22:42,410 --> 00:22:46,410
Speaker 1: Now Houdini would note the order of the code words

291
00:22:46,730 --> 00:22:49,650
Speaker 1: and ignore the other words in the sentence, convert them

292
00:22:49,650 --> 00:22:52,810
Speaker 1: back into numbers, and he'd know what the audience member

293
00:22:52,890 --> 00:22:56,610
Speaker 1: had written down. Depending on the context, those numbers could

294
00:22:56,610 --> 00:23:00,010
Speaker 1: be translated into letters too, according to their place in

295
00:23:00,050 --> 00:23:08,330
Speaker 1: the alphabet. Answer two the letter B tell five E

296
00:23:08,370 --> 00:23:12,090
Speaker 1: spell it out, and the words Arthur Ford had delivered

297
00:23:12,610 --> 00:23:21,530
Speaker 1: spelled B E L I E V E believe.

298
00:23:24,610 --> 00:23:29,530
Speaker 4: Rosa bell believe is that the right message.

299
00:23:29,890 --> 00:23:36,690
Speaker 1: Bess nodded tearfully, and Ford continued in triumph.

300
00:23:36,810 --> 00:23:40,730
Speaker 2: He says, tell the world that Harry Houdini lives and

301
00:23:40,810 --> 00:23:50,050
Speaker 2: will prove it a thousand times.

302
00:23:52,170 --> 00:23:56,010
Speaker 1: When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle read the news, he was

303
00:23:56,410 --> 00:24:00,530
Speaker 1: exultant all at once. Whodini had become.

304
00:24:01,170 --> 00:24:04,890
Speaker 2: The classical case of after death return.

305
00:24:06,130 --> 00:24:09,050
Speaker 1: Doyle got to work drafting a lengthy article.

306
00:24:10,330 --> 00:24:14,050
Speaker 2: If these loving hands can meet through the veil, then

307
00:24:14,170 --> 00:24:17,570
Speaker 2: hours also can do so.

308
00:24:17,730 --> 00:24:21,890
Speaker 1: When Rose Mackenberg read the news for a flash, her

309
00:24:21,930 --> 00:24:28,410
Speaker 1: composure was shaken. Then, as she recalled, my memory began

310
00:24:28,650 --> 00:24:34,210
Speaker 1: to function. Rose bel but that was hardly a secret.

311
00:24:35,170 --> 00:24:38,850
Speaker 1: Anyone who knew the Houdinis knew the significance of roose belt.

312
00:24:40,050 --> 00:24:43,770
Speaker 1: And as for those numbered code words, Rose thought, had

313
00:24:43,930 --> 00:24:48,290
Speaker 1: she read them somewhere since Houdini's death. She went to

314
00:24:48,290 --> 00:24:52,050
Speaker 1: her bookshelf and took down a biography of Houdini published

315
00:24:52,050 --> 00:24:56,690
Speaker 1: the previous year. Sure enough, tucked away on page one

316
00:24:56,770 --> 00:25:03,690
Speaker 1: hundred and five, there it was Pray one, answer two.

317
00:25:05,610 --> 00:25:09,530
Speaker 1: Rose closed the book. She could only get that the

318
00:25:09,610 --> 00:25:13,330
Speaker 1: details of how Ford had pulled off his trick. But

319
00:25:13,410 --> 00:25:16,410
Speaker 1: if the so called secret code was not so secret

320
00:25:16,450 --> 00:25:21,130
Speaker 1: after all, it clearly was a trick that was enough

321
00:25:21,250 --> 00:25:27,210
Speaker 1: to restore Rose's composure. As it happened, those details were surprising.

322
00:25:27,850 --> 00:25:30,130
Speaker 1: They were set out in an article on the front

323
00:25:30,250 --> 00:25:34,890
Speaker 1: page of the next morning's newspaper under an even bigger headline,

324
00:25:35,690 --> 00:25:42,410
Speaker 1: who DNI message a big HOPX cautionary tales will be

325
00:25:42,450 --> 00:25:57,370
Speaker 1: back in a moment? Who DENI message a big hoax?

326
00:25:58,410 --> 00:26:02,050
Speaker 1: The article was written by a journalist called Raya Howray.

327
00:26:02,930 --> 00:26:06,170
Speaker 1: She'd been at Bessie's house for the seance. She'd also

328
00:26:06,250 --> 00:26:09,730
Speaker 1: been at Bessie's house a couple of days before, when

329
00:26:09,770 --> 00:26:12,970
Speaker 1: she reported she had found Bess in a state of

330
00:26:13,210 --> 00:26:19,050
Speaker 1: semi delirium, intermittently blacking out. Under the constant care of physicians.

331
00:26:19,970 --> 00:26:23,890
Speaker 1: Bess was suffering from flu. It seemed she was also

332
00:26:24,090 --> 00:26:27,010
Speaker 1: still recovering from that bang to the head of the

333
00:26:27,050 --> 00:26:30,090
Speaker 1: New Year's party. But there was more to the story.

334
00:26:31,010 --> 00:26:34,730
Speaker 1: Bess had fallen because she was drunk. She'd been drinking

335
00:26:34,730 --> 00:26:39,810
Speaker 1: a lot lately and taking drugs and partying with younger men.

336
00:26:40,970 --> 00:26:45,050
Speaker 1: One of those younger men was none other than the dashing,

337
00:26:45,730 --> 00:26:53,090
Speaker 1: charming medium Arthur Ford. The journalist Raya Howrey had been

338
00:26:53,090 --> 00:26:55,610
Speaker 1: at some of those parties with Bess and Arthur Ford.

339
00:26:56,090 --> 00:26:59,170
Speaker 1: She knew how well they knew each other. She may

340
00:26:59,210 --> 00:27:03,010
Speaker 1: not have known that Bessi's semi delirium wasn't just from

341
00:27:03,170 --> 00:27:08,250
Speaker 1: drink or flu. She'd also swallowed lots of sleeping pills.

342
00:27:09,130 --> 00:27:12,490
Speaker 1: She'd left a note for Harry's lawyer, I am.

343
00:27:12,490 --> 00:27:16,810
Speaker 3: So ill, I want to go to Harry.

344
00:27:19,290 --> 00:27:23,770
Speaker 1: The semi delirious Bess told Raya all about the seance

345
00:27:24,050 --> 00:27:28,650
Speaker 1: she and Arthur Ford had planned. Arthur would give her

346
00:27:28,690 --> 00:27:33,210
Speaker 1: the coded message, she'd take off her wedding ring, explain

347
00:27:33,490 --> 00:27:39,210
Speaker 1: roose belt, and so on. Raya took careful notes. She

348
00:27:39,330 --> 00:27:43,330
Speaker 1: realized that Bess planning a seance wasn't much of a story,

349
00:27:44,290 --> 00:27:47,210
Speaker 1: but she could get two days of front page headlines

350
00:27:47,890 --> 00:27:52,090
Speaker 1: if she first reported on the seance, then reported on

351
00:27:52,170 --> 00:28:00,810
Speaker 1: the hoax. On the day after the seance, Raya invited

352
00:28:01,050 --> 00:28:04,970
Speaker 1: Arthur Ford to her house. Ford was delighted with the

353
00:28:05,010 --> 00:28:09,570
Speaker 1: newspaper coverage. Houdini's return was on all the front pages.

354
00:28:10,810 --> 00:28:14,130
Speaker 1: Raya led Ford into a discussion of the party where

355
00:28:14,130 --> 00:28:20,090
Speaker 1: she'd first met Ford and Bess didn't he remember? Oh? Yes,

356
00:28:20,650 --> 00:28:26,010
Speaker 1: Ford happily reminisced. Then Raya told Ford how she was

357
00:28:26,050 --> 00:28:29,250
Speaker 1: going to write another story about how Bess had told

358
00:28:29,290 --> 00:28:33,730
Speaker 1: her exactly how the seance would unfold. She showed him

359
00:28:33,770 --> 00:28:36,970
Speaker 1: the notes she'd taken. She had also shown those notes

360
00:28:37,010 --> 00:28:42,170
Speaker 1: to her editor before the seance. Ford was horrified.

361
00:28:43,010 --> 00:28:47,610
Speaker 2: But you must play ball, really, I would be glad

362
00:28:47,650 --> 00:28:49,130
Speaker 2: to make financial compensation.

363
00:28:51,330 --> 00:28:57,050
Speaker 1: The editor was hiding in the next room listening to everything.

364
00:28:59,250 --> 00:29:03,450
Speaker 1: When the hoax story was published, Arthur Ford insisted he

365
00:29:03,530 --> 00:29:07,570
Speaker 1: had been the victim of an impersonation attempt. It didn't

366
00:29:07,570 --> 00:29:11,730
Speaker 1: seem to harm his career as a medium. Houdini's lawyer

367
00:29:12,130 --> 00:29:16,410
Speaker 1: hand wrote a letter to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, handwritten

368
00:29:16,450 --> 00:29:20,250
Speaker 1: because this was in strictest confidence. He didn't even want

369
00:29:20,250 --> 00:29:24,050
Speaker 1: his secretary to see the contents. He thought Sir Arthur

370
00:29:24,090 --> 00:29:28,330
Speaker 1: should know just how desperate Bessie's mental decline had become

371
00:29:29,130 --> 00:29:34,850
Speaker 1: before that seance. Sir Arthur judiciously inserted one word into

372
00:29:34,890 --> 00:29:42,410
Speaker 1: his long article about Whodini's return. Apparently, then he tacked

373
00:29:42,450 --> 00:29:44,090
Speaker 1: a couple of sentences on to the end.

374
00:29:45,730 --> 00:29:48,090
Speaker 2: It is true that in the last resort we are

375
00:29:48,130 --> 00:29:52,490
Speaker 2: dependent upon the veracity and honesty of missus Houdini. But I,

376
00:29:52,690 --> 00:29:55,570
Speaker 2: for one, am not cynical enough to question it.

377
00:29:57,690 --> 00:30:01,530
Speaker 1: Perhaps it wasn't just grief about Harry's death that caused

378
00:30:01,570 --> 00:30:06,330
Speaker 1: bess to play along, but also what Bess had found

379
00:30:06,370 --> 00:30:12,250
Speaker 1: among Harry's belongings after his death, letters from other women

380
00:30:13,090 --> 00:30:17,690
Speaker 1: women she knew, women who privately referred to Harry as

381
00:30:18,330 --> 00:30:24,130
Speaker 1: my magic man or magic lover. Bess invited each of

382
00:30:24,170 --> 00:30:27,610
Speaker 1: them to lunch, but when they rang the doorbell, it

383
00:30:27,690 --> 00:30:33,250
Speaker 1: was Bessi's maid who answered, Missus Houdini is indisposed. She

384
00:30:33,290 --> 00:30:36,690
Speaker 1: asked me to give you this handing over a bundle

385
00:30:36,730 --> 00:30:44,210
Speaker 1: of their correspondence. In their book The Secret Life of Houdini,

386
00:30:44,690 --> 00:30:49,210
Speaker 1: the authors William Callush and Larry Slowman argue that Bess

387
00:30:49,410 --> 00:30:52,810
Speaker 1: was desperate for Harry to come back publicly to her.

388
00:30:53,850 --> 00:30:56,490
Speaker 1: She wanted to claim his spirit for the cause of

389
00:30:56,530 --> 00:31:00,610
Speaker 1: her marriage, just as Sir Arthur wanted to claim Houdini

390
00:31:00,850 --> 00:31:07,370
Speaker 1: for his religion. When the plan backfired, Bess spiraled further more,

391
00:31:07,450 --> 00:31:14,050
Speaker 1: drink ever younger Jiggilows, Pudini's brother, stepped in to safeguard

392
00:31:14,250 --> 00:31:19,210
Speaker 1: what was left of her inheritance. Bess checked herself into

393
00:31:19,290 --> 00:31:27,330
Speaker 1: a sanatorium. Hoodini had investigated enough mediums to know their

394
00:31:27,370 --> 00:31:33,530
Speaker 1: target market, the bereaved, made vulnerable by their grief. He

395
00:31:33,690 --> 00:31:37,250
Speaker 1: must have guessed that if he went first, Bess might

396
00:31:37,370 --> 00:31:41,010
Speaker 1: struggle to resist, so he didn't make a code just

397
00:31:41,130 --> 00:31:45,010
Speaker 1: with Bess. He made codes with everyone he felt he

398
00:31:45,050 --> 00:31:49,450
Speaker 1: could trust. One day, for instance, years before his death,

399
00:31:49,930 --> 00:31:53,370
Speaker 1: Hoodini stopped by the office of a friend and gave

400
00:31:53,450 --> 00:31:58,970
Speaker 1: him a present, a copy of Roget's Thesaurus. Inside was

401
00:31:58,970 --> 00:32:00,610
Speaker 1: a penciled note.

402
00:32:01,010 --> 00:32:02,330
Speaker 5: There is our cold.

403
00:32:03,570 --> 00:32:09,850
Speaker 1: Never breathed to a living soul. In his book A

404
00:32:09,930 --> 00:32:14,050
Speaker 1: Magician among the Spirits, Whodini said he had made pacts

405
00:32:14,090 --> 00:32:19,330
Speaker 1: like this with a dozen friends, every code unique. By

406
00:32:19,370 --> 00:32:22,090
Speaker 1: the time he died, it may have been more than twenty.

407
00:32:23,290 --> 00:32:27,770
Speaker 1: Whichever of us dies first, who Deni would explain, if

408
00:32:27,770 --> 00:32:30,650
Speaker 1: we find we still live and we can get through

409
00:32:30,730 --> 00:32:36,250
Speaker 1: with a message, include those words. When faced with an

410
00:32:36,290 --> 00:32:40,690
Speaker 1: intractable question, we can sometimes find an imaginative way to

411
00:32:40,770 --> 00:32:46,610
Speaker 1: generate evidence, And few questions are more intractable than do

412
00:32:46,650 --> 00:32:50,730
Speaker 1: we live on after death? The only evidence we'll ever

413
00:32:50,810 --> 00:32:53,890
Speaker 1: get is if someone comes back from the dead to

414
00:32:54,010 --> 00:32:57,170
Speaker 1: tell us. But how can we be sure if a

415
00:32:57,210 --> 00:33:02,250
Speaker 1: message from the other side is genuine? Wishful thinking is powerful,

416
00:33:02,730 --> 00:33:06,730
Speaker 1: Frauds can be convincing. Who Deni tried to make sure

417
00:33:06,770 --> 00:33:12,250
Speaker 1: that his audiences knew that. But what impresses me about Houdini.

418
00:33:13,130 --> 00:33:17,450
Speaker 1: Isn't just his efforts to debunk the lies. It's his

419
00:33:17,570 --> 00:33:24,290
Speaker 1: dedication to uncovering the truth. Houdini wanted to believe, but

420
00:33:24,570 --> 00:33:28,770
Speaker 1: he wasn't credulous like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was

421
00:33:28,890 --> 00:33:34,210
Speaker 1: curious and systematic. He set up a one man experiment

422
00:33:34,730 --> 00:33:39,730
Speaker 1: that was not only ingenious but selfless, because he knew

423
00:33:39,930 --> 00:33:42,490
Speaker 1: he might not be the one to gather the evidence

424
00:33:43,210 --> 00:33:46,770
Speaker 1: if he died first, it would be his friends whould

425
00:33:46,810 --> 00:33:51,210
Speaker 1: have to piece that evidence together, either the various different

426
00:33:51,330 --> 00:33:55,210
Speaker 1: code words coming through which would strongly suggest that communication

427
00:33:55,330 --> 00:33:59,890
Speaker 1: with the dead was possible, or not, as the case

428
00:33:59,930 --> 00:34:04,330
Speaker 1: may be. Some of the friends Houdini made pacts with

429
00:34:04,690 --> 00:34:08,690
Speaker 1: died before him. One even called him to her deathbed

430
00:34:09,250 --> 00:34:13,970
Speaker 1: to reassure him that she remembered their code, a secret handshake.

431
00:34:14,850 --> 00:34:18,690
Speaker 1: She held out her hand and grasped Houdini's in the

432
00:34:18,730 --> 00:34:22,930
Speaker 1: grip they'd agreed, if I can get through, she said,

433
00:34:23,730 --> 00:34:31,330
Speaker 1: I'll have someone shake your hand like that. Nobody ever did.

434
00:34:35,730 --> 00:34:40,970
Speaker 1: After Houdini died, nobody apart from Bess ever said he

435
00:34:41,010 --> 00:34:44,690
Speaker 1: came through with the code they arranged. One of his

436
00:34:44,810 --> 00:34:49,730
Speaker 1: secret codes was with of course, Rose Mackenberg. Rose spent

437
00:34:50,090 --> 00:34:55,810
Speaker 1: three decades after Houdini's death investigating mediums. They gave her

438
00:34:55,930 --> 00:35:03,130
Speaker 1: messages from fifteen hundred fictitious dead husbands, but nobody mentioned

439
00:35:03,130 --> 00:35:06,770
Speaker 1: the words she had agreed with Houdini. If just one

440
00:35:06,810 --> 00:35:10,050
Speaker 1: of those mediums really did have a hotline to the

441
00:35:10,090 --> 00:35:14,090
Speaker 1: spirit world, you'd think that Houdini might have picked up.

442
00:35:17,690 --> 00:35:23,210
Speaker 1: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in nineteen thirty. His widow,

443
00:35:23,570 --> 00:35:28,530
Speaker 1: Lady Doyle, invited a trusted medium to bring her husband back,

444
00:35:29,210 --> 00:35:33,570
Speaker 1: A good friend of Sir Arthur, a protege. Indeed, that

445
00:35:33,850 --> 00:35:40,690
Speaker 1: medium Arthur Ford. Lady Doyle was perfectly satisfied that Sir

446
00:35:40,890 --> 00:35:45,250
Speaker 1: Arthur had come through. Lady Doyle was less pleased when

447
00:35:45,330 --> 00:35:49,450
Speaker 1: some other medium published a book which claimed to contain

448
00:35:49,850 --> 00:35:56,330
Speaker 1: interviews with her dead husband, Arthur Conan Doyle's Book of

449
00:35:56,370 --> 00:36:00,250
Speaker 1: the Beyond. How dare they use his name like that?

450
00:36:01,050 --> 00:36:05,090
Speaker 1: It seemed that any old chancer could commandeer Sir Arthur's

451
00:36:05,090 --> 00:36:09,650
Speaker 1: spirit for their own purposes, and there was nothing Ladied

452
00:36:09,690 --> 00:36:16,010
Speaker 1: Oil could do about it. Who would have thought? Bess

453
00:36:16,370 --> 00:36:21,250
Speaker 1: eventually found a good man. His name was Edward Saint,

454
00:36:22,090 --> 00:36:25,050
Speaker 1: and he'd made his living in the circus, just like

455
00:36:25,250 --> 00:36:30,170
Speaker 1: Harry and Bess all those years ago. His act, he'd

456
00:36:30,250 --> 00:36:34,130
Speaker 1: challenged the audience to make him laugh, crack a joke,

457
00:36:34,450 --> 00:36:38,130
Speaker 1: and hid stays stony faced. If you got so much

458
00:36:38,210 --> 00:36:41,770
Speaker 1: as a smile out of him, you'd win a thousand dollars.

459
00:36:43,330 --> 00:36:47,450
Speaker 1: The money was never in danger. Saint had a partially

460
00:36:47,490 --> 00:36:54,730
Speaker 1: paralyzed face. Edward Saint revered Houdini and looked after Bess.

461
00:36:56,010 --> 00:37:00,730
Speaker 1: Years after her seance with Arthur Ford, she told an interviewer.

462
00:37:01,930 --> 00:37:04,690
Speaker 3: There was a time when I wanted intensely to hear

463
00:37:04,770 --> 00:37:10,530
Speaker 3: from Harry. I was ill, both physically and me, and

464
00:37:10,770 --> 00:37:14,090
Speaker 3: such was my eagerness that spiritualists were able to prey

465
00:37:14,210 --> 00:37:15,010
Speaker 3: upon my mind.

466
00:37:16,570 --> 00:37:20,690
Speaker 1: To her friends, she added a few more words about

467
00:37:20,810 --> 00:37:21,890
Speaker 1: Arthur Ford.

468
00:37:22,010 --> 00:37:24,610
Speaker 3: But he was such a handsome young man.

469
00:37:26,970 --> 00:37:31,250
Speaker 1: On the tenth anniversary of Houdini's death, the thirty first

470
00:37:31,250 --> 00:37:37,330
Speaker 1: of October nineteen thirty six, Edward Saint and Bess organized

471
00:37:37,930 --> 00:37:44,250
Speaker 1: a seance, the Final Seance, one last chance for Harry

472
00:37:44,290 --> 00:37:49,370
Speaker 1: to come through. Hundreds of guests gathered under the stars

473
00:37:49,410 --> 00:37:54,010
Speaker 1: on the rooftop of a Hollywood hotel. Millions more listened

474
00:37:54,010 --> 00:37:59,330
Speaker 1: to the live radio broadcast. A portrait of Houdini, lit

475
00:37:59,410 --> 00:38:02,850
Speaker 1: by a single red light bulb, looked down on a

476
00:38:02,890 --> 00:38:08,130
Speaker 1: table on which stood various devices of the medium's trade,

477
00:38:08,250 --> 00:38:15,170
Speaker 1: a trumpet, a bell, slates with chalk. Saint explained why

478
00:38:16,290 --> 00:38:19,930
Speaker 1: every facility has been provided tonight that might aid in

479
00:38:20,090 --> 00:38:21,810
Speaker 1: opening a pathway.

480
00:38:21,330 --> 00:38:22,490
Speaker 2: To the spirit world.

481
00:38:23,610 --> 00:38:28,930
Speaker 6: Are you here, Houdini, please manifest yourself in any way possible.

482
00:38:29,570 --> 00:38:32,690
Speaker 6: Let it take the table, spell out a code, Harry

483
00:38:33,410 --> 00:38:34,050
Speaker 6: ring the bell.

484
00:38:40,490 --> 00:38:49,050
Speaker 1: Everyone waited, nothing happened. Saint turned to Bess, missus Houdini,

485
00:38:50,050 --> 00:38:51,370
Speaker 1: have you reached a verdict?

486
00:38:52,850 --> 00:38:57,490
Speaker 3: Yes, I do not believe that Houdini can come back

487
00:38:57,530 --> 00:39:00,650
Speaker 3: to me or to anyone.

488
00:39:01,770 --> 00:39:08,210
Speaker 1: It is finished. Bess looked up at the portrait of

489
00:39:08,250 --> 00:39:09,090
Speaker 1: Harry Houdini.

490
00:39:10,650 --> 00:39:12,610
Speaker 3: Good Night, Harry.

491
00:39:13,410 --> 00:39:38,210
Speaker 1: She turned out the light. By Houdini Trilogy drew on

492
00:39:38,330 --> 00:39:43,210
Speaker 1: books such as Final Seance by Massimo Polydoro and The

493
00:39:43,290 --> 00:39:48,170
Speaker 1: Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski. For

494
00:39:48,250 --> 00:39:50,970
Speaker 1: a fullest of our sources, see the show notes at

495
00:39:51,010 --> 00:39:58,170
Speaker 1: Timharford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim

496
00:39:58,250 --> 00:40:02,210
Speaker 1: Harford with Andrew Wright, Alice Fines, and Ryan Dilly. It's

497
00:40:02,290 --> 00:40:06,250
Speaker 1: produced by Georgia Mills and Marilyn Rust. The sound design

498
00:40:06,370 --> 00:40:10,130
Speaker 1: and original music are the work of Pascal wi. Additional

499
00:40:10,170 --> 00:40:13,730
Speaker 1: sound design is by Carlos San Juan at Brain Audio.

500
00:40:14,410 --> 00:40:18,450
Speaker 1: Bend A Dafhaffrey edited the scripts. The show features the

501
00:40:18,530 --> 00:40:23,410
Speaker 1: voice talents of Melanie Guttridge, Stella Harford, Oliver Hembrough, Sarah Jupp,

502
00:40:23,730 --> 00:40:28,410
Speaker 1: massaam Monroe, Jamal Westman, and rufus Wright. The show also

503
00:40:28,450 --> 00:40:31,370
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been possible without the work of Jacob Weisberg,

504
00:40:31,490 --> 00:40:36,330
Speaker 1: Greta Cohne, Sarah Nix, Eric Sandler, Carrie Brody, Christina Sullivan,

505
00:40:36,650 --> 00:40:41,210
Speaker 1: Kira Posey, and Owen Miller. Cautionary Tales is a production

506
00:40:41,370 --> 00:40:45,730
Speaker 1: of Pushkin Industries. It's recorded at Wardoor Studios in London

507
00:40:46,050 --> 00:40:49,610
Speaker 1: by Tom Berry. If you like the show, please remember

508
00:40:49,650 --> 00:40:52,490
Speaker 1: to share, rate and review. It really makes a difference

509
00:40:52,530 --> 00:40:54,050
Speaker 1: to us and if you want to hear the show,

510
00:40:54,290 --> 00:40:57,410
Speaker 1: add free sign up to Pushkin Plus on the show

511
00:40:57,490 --> 00:41:01,490
Speaker 1: page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, slash

512
00:41:01,650 --> 00:41:02,050
Speaker 1: plus