I'd be out in half the time.Īs soon as he was completely covered by the soil, he began to go to work. I'd be able to disperse so much more soil using that instead of my bare hands. This would be so much easier if I did it in a coffin. He knew that his head would be covered next so he braced for the assault of the heavy soil, so as not to eat some again. The shackles that held his ankles together were completely buried, and the content of two or three more shovelfuls would obscure the last traces of the handcuffs. Stay calm.īy now the dirt had almost completely covered Houdini's body. How can a few feet make such a difference? I'm starting to feel faint. Vickery never forgave himself for allowing those bastards to pull the chains so tight.

What if he hurt himself now, like the time he did in Buffalo? Ever since Harry had burst that blood vessel getting out of those chains, he was in such intense chronic pain he'd had to sleep with a pillow under his left kidney.

But the four- and five-foot escapes seemed to really have taken something out of him. He had expected his boss to have no problem with the one- and even the two-foot 'plantings,' as he called them, and he didn't. Vickery began to admit to himself his concern. He'd never forget that oath of secrecy that he'd sworn and how seriously Harry seemed to take it.Īm I pushing myself too hard? I'm forty-one but I look fifty. Of course, that would have to wait until after it was performed. Vickery thought of how his friends would react when he told them of Harry's latest stunt. Subconsciously, they moved into a rhythm, one scraping his shovel into the mounds of dirt piled high around them, the other sending his payload straight down into the dank hole. They could only imagine how he must feel. They had been at this since a little past dawn and their arms were beginning to ache with fatigue. Keep the heart rate down.Ĭollins and Vickery continued to fill the cavity with moist Santa Ana soil. 'Sorry, boss,' Collins said, looking down into the hole. The first shovel-load missed his torso and struck his neck, sending soil flying up his nostrils and into his mouth.

Yet another side of Houdini is revealed in the new biography from William Kalush and Larry Sloman.

Harry houdini cecelia weisz