Long before James Bond became the template for all things mysterious and exciting it seems there was someone else in Her Majesties Service who didn’t need the fancy toys of the famed 007.
A new book set for release on Halloween suggests that Harry Houdini, spent his hours helping out Scotland Yard keep track of Russian anarchists. When he wasn't helping out Her Majesty, Houdini was busy lending assistance to the U. S. Secret Service in their quest to track down counterfeiters. Apparently all in a days work for the illustrious escape artist.
Unlike the spies of today, it would seem a public profile was just the cover to pry loose information on behalf of the Queen or the U. S. Government.
Houdini of course died in 1926 at the age of 52, the victim of two separate incidents of someone punching him in the stomach. They were assaults that the authors suggest may have been related in their planning.
But instead of payback from any number of foreign agents, it’s suggested that perhaps aware of Houdini’s extra curricular activities, that the Houdini hit was organized by rival spiritualist groups. A rather prominent organization in the 1920’s which was feeling the pressure after Houdini and his wife targeted their traveling road shows as frauds.
Spooks and ghouls, ghosts and spies all part of the mythology of Houdini and his demise.
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