Houdini's Grave – Machpelah Cemetery

New York · United States · Cemetery

Houdini died on Halloween, promising his wife he would break back from the other side with a secret code word – at his Queens grave, they have waited for him every Halloween since 1926.

The escape king Harry Houdini spent his final years exposing fraudulent mediums – while making a pact with his wife Bess: whoever died first would try to reach the other with a secret code phrase no medium could fake. He died on Halloween 1926 of a ruptured appendix and was buried in the family plot at Jewish Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, beneath the Society of American Magicians' crest and a grieving stone maiden, his head resting – tradition says – on a bundle of his mother's letters. For ten years Bess held rooftop séances at the Knickerbocker Hotel every Halloween before giving up: "ten years is long enough to wait for any man." Magicians still make the pilgrimage for the annual broken-wand ceremony; cemetery workers speak of a man in a dark suit at the grave who is gone by the time they reach it.

FAQ

Where is Houdini's Grave – Machpelah Cemetery located?

Houdini's Grave – Machpelah Cemetery is in New York, United States.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.