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Harry Houdini dies in Detroit

Harry Houdini stepping into a crate that will be lowered into New York Harbor as part of an escape stunt on July 7, 1912. Houdini died on October 31, 1926. File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI
Harry Houdini stepping into a crate that will be lowered into New York Harbor as part of an escape stunt on July 7, 1912. Houdini died on October 31, 1926. File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI

DETROIT, Nov. 1, 1926 (UP) -- In a bronze, air-tight coffin recently constructed for one of his myriad tricks, the body of Harry Houdini, America's greatest magician, will leave here tonight for New York.

The famous magician, who from early youth startled the world with escapes from "perfect prisons," has found one cell from which there is no outlet.

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The Jailer beckoned at 1:26 p.m., Sunday. The door was closed, the bolt thrown-Harry Houdini was dead.

Houdini's wife and other members of his family were present at Grace Hospital when death came. The magician was operated on for appendicitis a week ago. Later another surgical attempt was made to save the magician from the effects of peritonitis.

"I'll get out of this the way I always get out of everything," the magician said bravely a short time before the end.

Altho physicians had given up hope, Houdini, who had accomplished apparently impossible feats during his active lifetime, never lost confidence. He even inspired those about them with hope, for they had known him to perform seeming miracles.

"I'm licking them," Houdini whispered to his wife, the former Beatrice Rahner of New York, early Sunday morning. But at 10 o'clock he admitted to his brother, Theodore Hardine:

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"I guess I'm all thru fighting."

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