On March 3rd, I watched The Travel Channel’s Mysteries At The Museum Episode, Scared to Death and More, that featured Dorothy Dietrich discussing how Houdini died. The segment was a little over 8 minutes.
The gist of the clip was that Houdini was getting better from the surgery to remove his ruptured appendix until injected with an experimental serum (possibly poison) by a mysterious Dr. Levevre (with possible ties to spiritualism).
This theme (serum may have been poison) was chosen by the show, which meant most of the other things Dorothy touched on did not make the cut.
FWIW: Kalush’s book, Secret Life of Houdini, calls Dr Lefevre “…a post-operative specialist…” and also states that he “…was a homeopathist who had devised an experimental serum to combat the poisons circulating through Houdini’s G.I. tract.” And according to Kalush, Le Roi Crandon, had a confederate inject Houdini with that serum in Detroit, and it was meant to kill him, not cure him.
All of this said, I am not aware of any link between Crandon and Dr. Lefevre, but the Travel Channel suggests Lefevre had ties to Spiritualism.
You can read the NY times articles (10/26, 10/27, 10/28) that cover George L. Lefevre of Muskegon, Michigan and Houdini’s condition that final week (10/25 – 11/1) at Tom Interval’s excellent website:
There’s a newspaper cutout in the Henning book about the experimental serum possibly killing HH. A public outcry over irresponsible medical treatment. I wonder if Harry gave permission and signed a waiver when given the shot.
Crandon would have had to work fast to get his confederate to inject Harry with the poison. The whole tragedy was unexpected, and in those days the news took a bit longer to travel.
Thanks for the reference Leo. Below are some quotes from the newspaper cutout in the Henning book:
“Died Sunday afternoon following two operations and the injection of a mysterious new serum.”
“More than one million readers of the publication are anxious to know how Houdini was fed during his illness and other details of his treatment that have been withheld from the public”
It is believed he died from surgical superstition and food administered to his system when the life forces were at their lowest ebb.
“He didn’t know how to escape from the doctors”
“It is a great pity that this foe of sham was sacrificed because of the sham of the medical profession.”
“When the American public realizes the fallacy of the present system there will be an uproar that will shake medical incompetency to its foundation”
“…the ignorance of medical and surgical practitioners which has resulted in many deaths of public figures lately declared today that nature provides a protective gland when the appendix bursts, and if left alone the poison would be carried out of the system in the same manner all poisons are carried out.”
Tabloid junk then and now.