The family of Harry Houdini’s widow wants to block a plan to exhume the escape artist’s remains, saying a disinterment to determine whether he was murdered smacks of sensationalism.
“It is our firm belief that Bess Houdini would never approve of this,” said a statement from her grandnephews, John and Jeffrey Blood. “The family believes this is likely being done to promote sales of a recent book on Harry Houdini, suggesting he may have been murdered.”
“I’m sorry that Bess’ side of the family feels that way, because this is not a publicity stunt in any shape or form,” said Larry Sloman, co-author of “The Secret Life of Houdini.” “This is not something frivolous. This is a serious scientific study.”
Houdini’s grandnephew George Hardeen announced last week he was backing an exhumation to determine whether his famous relative was poisoned. The biography suggests Houdini was possibly targeted because of his relentless public ridicule of the Spiritualists, a group whose members claimed they could contact the dead.
Houdini, whose real name was Erich Weiss, is buried in Machpelah Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Queens, N.Y. He died in 1926.
Some Jewish laws view the excavation of remains as an act of desecration and humiliation of the dead akin to autopsies, cremation and the like, which are also not allowed under Jewish law.
Houdini died after being hospitalized for several days with a ruptured appendix (peritonitis). The death certificate signed by Dr. Daniel Cohn, Houdini’s attending physician, and filed with the Grace Hospital of Detroit, reported peritonitis as the cause of death.