Harry Houdini may be about to perform another escape act after the launch yesterday of a legal bid for the exhumation of his body from the New York grave where it has lain for more than 80 years.

Details of the plan, which include hiring a team of top forensic scientists to test the remains for evidence that he was murdered, were set out at a press conference yesterday.

Joseph Tacopina, a lawyer assisting Houdini’s family, said that paperwork for the exhumation would be filed in court on Monday. “There was a motive to murder Harry Houdini and it was suppressed and covered up,” he added. George Hardeen, the escapologist’s great-nephew, said: “His death shocked the entire nation, if not the world. Maybe it’s time to take a second look.”

Most accounts attribute Houdini’s death on Hallowe’en in 1926 to peritonitis, a ruptured appendix caused by a punch in the stomach, even though no autopsy was performed. Speculation, however, continues to surround the man who was born Erik Weisz on this day in 1874 into a family of poor Jewish immigrants.

A 2006 biography called The Secret Life of Houdini claimed that he had worked as a spy for the US Secret Service and MI5. The most sensational allegation by the authors, William Kalush and Larry Sloman, was that Houdini may have been poisoned by Spiritualists angry that he had employed detectives and spent $40,000 to expose fraudulent mediums.

Mr Sloman said yesterday: “We know that Houdini had exhibited symptoms of . . . poisoning for months before. His wife was ill at the same time he was ill in the hospital. And we also found some evidence that he might have uncovered a plot by his enemies.”

Houdini’s enemies included Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and a Spiritualist. In a November 1924 letter, he said that Houdini would “get his just desserts very exactly meted out . . . I think there is a general payday coming soon”. The medium Margery Crandon, whose husband Le Roi was one of the movement’s biggest advocates, is said to have channelled the spirit of her brother, Walter, during a seance attended by Houdini. “I put a curse on you now that will follow you every day for the rest of your short life,” Walter is supposed to have said.

Anna Thurlow, the great-granddaughter of Margery, supports the exhumation bid, saying: “With people that delusional, you have to question what they’re capable of . . . If there’s any circumstantial evidence that Houdini was poisoned, we have to explore that.”

The team working on the exhumation includes Professor James Starrs, who has studied the remains of Jesse James and the Boston Strangler.

Great escapes

1883 Houdini presents first show, aged 9, to friends. Adopts stage name Erich, Prince of the Air. His first trick was not escapology but the needle trick. He would swallow several needles and a length of thread, then bring them up again with the needles hanging on the thread
1908 Unveils escape from a giant milk can filled with water. Tours with this hugely popular trick through the US, Britain and Germany
1913 Introduces “Upside Down Water Torture Cell”. Houdini’s ankles are secured in a brace and he is lowered into a tank of water from which he escapes
1918 Launches a stunt at the Hippodrome theatre in New York in which he fires a pistol to make a 10,000lb elephant disappear
1918 Stars in a 15-episode serial called The Master Mystery, and goes on to found Houdini Pictures Corporation, using film to showcase his tricks

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