Professor Slim King: It looks like you already knew about the earlier séances. 12 Mar 2015

Professor Slim KingMarch 11, 2015 at 10:19 PM

Do you know where the other Seances were held and when?

John CoxMarch 12, 2015 at 9:15 AM

Only a few. And those I know of where held in the spring, not on Halloween. If Bess really did an annual seance, she did most of them privately.

Professor Slim King:
https://www.facebook.com/Professor-Slim-......6393556/

Excellent ... Now you know I've done my homework! The very best Houdini authorities can't find any evidence that there were 10 seances on top of the Knickerbocker Hotel on every Halloween ... In fact they can't even find ANY others on Halloween!!!!!! And the authorities admit that the "Final" one was a hoax. There was no medium present ... Mrs. Houdini pretended to be one like she did with Harry when they first got started as fake mediums themselves. You can read about it in many of the Houdini books. Even one Houdini himself wrote.

So I'm very thankful that John Cox has been so truthful on the subject! No one can verify the statement you've made about the 10 mysterious seances on every Halloween on top of the Knickerbocker Hotel or anywhere else for that matter,,,

You'd be best served to concentrate on the One and Only Seance that DID reveal the secret coded message between Harry and Bess. Arthur Ford was indeed the medium that successfully performed the Seance in January of 1929. Bess signed a very important document verifying it ....
Look here....

https://www.facebook.com/Houdinis-GHOST-......?fref=ts

No. I do not know you did your home work. I know you like to play foolish games. It is interesting the photos taken of Bess lying in bed reveal her head is all bandaged up. Likely from her fall down the stairs, as which historians claim. If I remember correctly these historians have claimed Bess was an alcoholic (and likely drunk when she fell). It is unlikely she was trying to commit suicide by falling down a flight of stairs. As far as I know from historians she made no other suicide attempts. How do you explain Bess' letters to Walter Winchell and Bernard M.L. Ernst? http://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_day_houdini_almost_came_back_from_the_dead.

I do not agree with you CSICOP, now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, which has been supported by members Milborne Christopher, Martin Gardner, James Randi, James Alcock, Isaac Asimov and many others is a bunch of liars. I think they are sincere seekers of the truth. But of course I could be wrong. That is something I doubt you will ever say.

Bess Letter to Walter Winchell perfectly explains what happened. Arthur Ford gave her the correct message she had been waiting for. The CSICOP article you refer to has many many mistakes and downright misrepresentations. Her sworn statement and her letter to Winchell fully explain what happened ... The 16 word secret coded message was revealed through the medium Arthur Ford. She never denied it. She even told her lawyer not to attempt a lawsuit since he actually DID reveal the message ... It was big headlines!!!!

Look at them... HOUDINI PROVES SOUL IMMORTAL!!!!!!
https://www.facebook.com/Houdinis-GHOST-......?fref=ts

According to the paper itself it would seem this headline is puff for a theatrical play.
We’re in the business of PRESENTING THE TRUTH OF HARRY HOUDINI'S AFTERLIFE EXPERIMENT AND PRESENTING IT ON STAGE.
I see a line that states: "Later we will open the vault and prove it".

It is an actual Headline from an actual News Paper. It was reported in hundreds of other papers also. Bess signed a legal document and sent Walter Winchell a letter confirming the truth of the Seance and how Arthur Ford relayed the secret coded message that she and her husband had agreed upon.... The afterlife experiment was a success!!!!! Bess and Harry had deposited the coded message in a vault to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt the validity of the message ... And they did!!!!

NIT PICK

8 Apr 16 12:17 am Slim King quote ”The problem here is
that she disclosed a NUMBER CODE... She made NO MENTION
of a letter code. The code she revealed was one they had
used to give the date of a coin. At no time did she
mention this as a letter code.

This is not true. The “secret code” had not been secret since
its publication, the previous year, on page 105 of
Houdini, His Life Story, the authorized biography written
by Harold Kellock and based on Bess’s “recollections and
documents.

Supposedly Ford’s message consisted of nine words
following “Rosabelle” formed the word Believe in this
manner: Answer (B), tell (E), pray-answer (L), look (I),
tell (E), answer-answer (V), tell (E).


8 Apr 16 12:17 am Slim King quote: In addition .. The
first word was ROSABELLE (No code) ... The second part
was coded with an Alphabetical Code .. 10 words spelling
out BELIEVE and [the last 5 words were given by Bess in
French] ... The entire code was a two way code of 16
words in French, English and an English code.

You are the only puzzler who states there were words in
French [the last 5 words were given by Bess in French]?
Why would Bess speak if the message was from her husband?
After Rosabelle there are actually only 9 code words
spelling out BELIEVE

13 Apr 16 07:33 am Slim King quote: Her sworn statement
and her letter to Winchell fully explain what happened
... The 16 word secret coded message was revealed through
the medium Arthur Ford.

In her letter to Winchell Bess never states that there
was a "16 word secret coded message".
The Day Houdini (Almost) Came Back from the Dead
Notes on a Strange World
Massimo Polidoro
Skeptical Inquirer Volume 36.2, March/April 2012

It is entirely possible I miscounted the coded words and included ROSABELLE as one word (One regular word and 9 coded words..often referred to a ten code words ..My Bad) .. Then again .. there could have been SIX words in french given by Bess. (Depends how good at French you are and I'm horrid)
Houdini was a brilliant man. His Afterlife experiment included a TWO WAY code to assure him that his message had gotten through.

It's an amazing story hidden from the history books for so long!!!! I'm glad you are beginning to scratch the surface. Massimo Polidoro is just repeating misinformation he heard others repeat ...

If you'd feel better saying there were 15 words in English and French rather than 16 I'll be fine with that ...In any event .. It's a miracle that Arthur Ford would know them all.

Was Bess an alcoholic?

I am afraid we are both repeating information we have gotten from others. We were not there. Nor does there seem to have been a voice recorder or an official stenographer. (As in the case of Leonora Piper. Statements Piper made seem to have been recorded by questioners later from her sitters and the sitters themselves. How much later we do not know). The greater one is distant from the events themselves the hazier they become.

It seems after Houdini died Bess hit the bottle. Depression can do that to a person. I do not know if anyone really knows she was an alcoholic. Houdini, himself, seems to have been a teetotaler. There is a story Houdini once tried to escape from a barrel some mean person had filled with beer. He was not pleased.

As time passes people tend to embellish stories.

3 of the best Houdini books are:
Houdini! The Career of Ehrich Weiss by Kenneth Silverman
Houdini: The Untold Story by Milbourne Christopher
A Magician Among the Spirits by Houdini

Houdini fans may find Mina Crandon on the Wikipedia of interest

Many have faintly said "Yes!", which brings this question to my mind ... Do alcoholics get better or worse without rehab?It seems that she and Edward Saint were at least drinking buddies if nothing else.

Mr M ....I would suggest reading .. THE WITCH OF LIME STREET .. I have both the book and the audio ... Amazing story!!!!

Best Houdini Web Page http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/

"John Cox has become a one-man aggregator of all Houdini
news on the web, as he creates original content, links to
the works of others, and exploits the power of social
media to spread the word far and wide. [He] has put
together a fascinating site for fans of Houdini and magic
history, and John is performing a service for us all by
going the extra mile, past those first few Google result
pages, to find the really obscure, undiscovered stuff."
- The Mandala, March/April 2012

John Cox is awesome, yet he doesn't always dig deep enough and he often falls into ad hominem attacks rather than logical thought. But I still think he's a great guy!!!!

Http://maudeadamsproductions.com/index.html
Jon Oliver Houdini's Only True Successor

Let's get back to the subject here. Arthur Ford lived a good long life after the others seemed to drink themselves to death. Arthur himself was an admitted alcoholic who joined AA and struggled his entire life with addictions after his near fatal car wreck which resulted in his opiate addiction. He beat that but turned to alcohol to kill the remaining pain. It's an interesting but sad story. His sister lost her life in the accident. Despite what others have claimed ... Arthur Ford was never convicted or even arrested for fraud. He was the pastor of a church or on a mission field the majority of his life until he passed over in 1971.