Houdini’s Final Trick, a Tidy Grave (died on Halloween in 1926)

[Omaha Steve]

FULL story and video at link.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/houdinis-final-trick-a-tidy-grave/

October 31, 2008, 11:39 am
Houdini’s Final Trick, a Tidy Grave
By Corey Kilgannon

I’ve long been fascinated by, and even somewhat drawn to, the grave of Harry Houdini, in the run-down Machpelah Cemetery, just off the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Ridgewood, Queens.

I stop by to check on the grave whenever I’m in the area with some spare time. The grave lies directly inside the gates, next to a daunting, abandoned building that was once the cemetery office. I’ve never found the gates locked, even though the cemetery always seemed utterly deserted and forgotten. The dilapidated building has open doors and windows and the inside is ransacked and dark and spooky, with old cemetery records scattered around.

Many of the grave sites are overgrown, and many headstones are in disrepair or toppled or covered in ivy. Houdini’s grave was always in decent shape, as if someone came and landscaped it occasionally and left various mementos on the gravestone: decks of cards, rocks, coins, keys, a witch’s broom, and other objects.

This week, there was a crude broom on the gravestone, a few rain-spattered playing cards, some keys and coins and stones.

Turns out, someone does come and shape up the grave once in a while. The New York chapter of the Society of American Magicians has a Houdini Gravesite Committee, and a Brooklyn man named George Schindler is the committee chairman. He said that the bust of Houdini that once adorned the grave site kept being vandalized and was now kept in storage by the committee, whose members bring landscaping tools to the cemetery and tidy up the grave site several times a year.

“Houdini paid for perpetual care, but there’s nobody at the cemetery to provide it,” he said, adding that the operator of the cemetery, David Jacobson, “sends us a bill for upkeep every year but we never pay it because he never provides any care.”

FULL story and video at link.

[Mind_your_head]

1. You've now made me 'feel bad' (rightfully so) b/c I've NEVER

gone back to visit the grave of my dear, DEAR saintly uncle ~ better than my father, most likely ~ on things that mattered.

[midnight]

2. The story tells a sad but true fact about service in America.

It is not that reliable. Thanks for the story.

[lonestarnot]

4. Hell the metal recyclers are stealing the vases at cemetaries to sell them for

a few bucks. I go there regularly to check on stuff and out of respect to tidy up what keepers don't have time to do.

[Omaha Steve]

3. One more R for Houdini?

Kick.

[earth mom]

5. Thanks for posting this.

I used to be fascinated with Houdini when I was a kid.

[Danascot]

8. Me too

I went through a phase as a kid where whenever my parents had some friends over, I'd make them tie me up with ropes and chains and throw me in the pool.

[earth mom]

10. LOL, I never went that far, but I did do a book report on Houdini and Uri Geller.

:silly:

[Liberal In Texas]

6. Omaha Steve...It's late.

It's Halloween. I've had probably too many brewskies.

But it's about murder. It's about ghosts and that damned park north just off the Missouri river, north of the Eppley. One of the spookiest places I've EVER been.

I used to live in Omaha. I lived there for years and years, and never ventured into this place until a young woman who was a relative of a good friend turned up missing. I was visiting and I got got suckered into looking for her. Probably at this point, looking for her body.

One of the places to search was this park. (I'm looking for the name as I write) Hummel?

Ah yes. Hummel Park. I just remembered and googled it.



I drove into the park. The road snaked up the bluffs. I drive an SUV so I never had a worry about not getting through, but the road was strangely twisty and turned a lot. It was very narrow with many branches down. I found a pavilion. I think it was supposed to be a picnic area at one time. My friend later told me it was some sort of scout camp before it was abandoned. Tables and abandoned sleeping quarters. Stone steps were sunk adjacent to the area into some kind of ditch or ravine.

There was all kinds of evidence of Satanic worship; grafitti spray painted on the structure, steps, and sidewalks. But what the hey...kids do this.

One of the places to search was this park. (I'm looking for the name as I write) Hummel?

Ah yes. Hummel Park. I just remembered and googled it.

There was all kinds of evidence of Satanic worship; grafitti spray painted on the structure, steps, and sidewalks. But what the hey...kids do this.



I was alone. I mean, there was NOBODY else about. It was in the middle of the afternoon, and it shouldn't have been gloomy, but the whole park exuded a really awful vibe (I know this is a stupid word, but that's all I can give you.)

I walked around the camp. I stared at the downward (rock? concrete?) stairs. I knew I had to see what was down there. I went down for a bit and at some point thought I'd better stop. I returned to the top of the gulch.

When I got back up, I noticed here were broken logs laying around. And just this really oppressive atmosphere. I'm pretty fearless and deal with all kinds of stress every day I work. BUT, I could not make myself go all the way down those damn steps.

Another part of Hummel I just found...I saw this place too...


The whole time I kept thinking. "Somebody has died here." It was a feeling I couldn't get rid of. It oppressed me and overtook me when I was in the park. When I drove out, the feeling left.

Anyway. I didn't find any bodies. (Thank god) I left Omaha and drove back to Dallas. My friends relative was still missing. Months later, some fishermen would find her floating in the Missouri River near a bridge abutment way south of Hummel Park.

However. There were a couple of other young women missing in Omaha around that time. Before my friends relative's body was discovered, they found one of the missing women very near I was doing my amateur search.

I do not pretend to be some kind of psychic or anything. I have probably driven by the Hummel Park entrance (which in itself is weird) when I went to high school and college in Omaha


many times but never ventured into the park.

You run into may barracaids like this that make no sense:


I was just reviewing what I just wrote. ( I found the pics on a quick google search, it seems I'm not the only one that thinks Hummel is weird. -I am a photographer

[Omaha Steve]

7. Please do

Fill in the details.

[SpookyCat]

13. Details please!

I'm sorry for the reason you were there, that's awful. I don't mean to be insensitive to your pain, but for me as a non-connected outsider, I want to go there right now.


This is the kind of thing CS and I freakin' live for!

Now I gotta go to that park and skulk around, I have no choice. Someplace that cool and spooky? I will lose my goth card if I don't...

[IDemo]

9. My grandfather sang in a vaudeville act and toured with Houdini for awhile

I was never able speak with him about it, though. My grandmother used to tell me she and Beth Houdini were good friends.

I read Houdini's biography as a youngster and became fascinated with his life before ever learning of this.

[Myrina]

11. How odd that he wasn't buried back in Appleton, WI ..

... where he's orginally from ... :shrug:

Where are his parents (especially his mother) buried?

[old mark]

12. Thanks for posting this. Rec.

Erich Weiss (Harry Houdini) was a great performer, and a very interesting and good man. I'm glad that someone is still looking out for his grave.


mark

[SpookyCat]

14. Thank you for posting that Omaha Steve

I didn't know about his final resting place, and now I need to go make a pilgrimage to it. I *guess* I can leave Manhattan for that... :-)

This story reminded me of one of my own cemetery pilgrimage stories...when CS and I were in Paris, we went to Pere-Leche to visit Jim Morrison, among others. This was back when my hair was bright purple.

Pere-Leche is huge and sprawling, and very easy to get lost in. So we were walking around with our map trying to find it, when we stopped to get our bearings, we realized we were being followed. That's when it dawned on us that a gaggle of other tourists had latched onto us to follow, figuring that the two of us were surely heading to Morrisons grave.

Here are a very tired and disheveled me and Comrade Snarky. We got one of our "troup" to take the shot for us...