Why are Houdini Halloween séances held every year, and what did Houdini tell his wife, Bess, from beyond the grave?
Houdini was devastated when his mother died and tried to reach her through spiritualists who tried to trick him. This angered him so much that he spent the rest of his life testing and debunking spiritualists who claimed to communicate with the dead. But Houdini still held out hope that it was possible and devised a coded message he’d relay to his wife after his death. Only Bess Houdini knew the code.
After the infamous Houdini died on Halloween, 1926, hundreds of spiritual mediums claimed to receive messages from Houdini. He knew this would happen, so he devised a secret code for his wife, Bess, so she would know, undoubtedly, that it was him. Early in their career, the Houdinis performed a telepathy act using a code. The code between them used a word to represent a letter that would spell out a different message entirely:
Pray=A
Answer=B
Say=C
Now=D
Tell=E
Please=F
Etcetera.
Bess knew this code and knew that none of the messages the spiritualists were delivering were correct. She offered a $10,000 prize for the medium who could deliver a true message from her late husband. Arthur Ford, a spiritualist pastor from New York City, conducted a séance with Bess and his congregation, during which he received a message.
The message Ford delivered to Bess seemed to make no sense: “Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray-answer, look, tell, answer-answer, tell.”
Everyone thought it was garbledy-gook, except Bessie. In the Houdinis’ coded telepathy, which only the two of them understood, the message spelled:
ROSEABELLE, BELIEVE.
Roseabelle was Houdini’s nickname for Bessie, from a poem they shared. Houdini was telling Bess to believe that he was contacting her from beyond!
Read more about the Houdinis in The Secret Life of Mrs. London.
GOLD DIGGER and SILVER ECHOES by historical novelist Rebecca Rosenberg are available now at Amazon
