Houdini and Conan Doyle: the story of a strange friendship

The breach was growing larger and larger. In another letter, Doyle remarked: "Our relations are certainly curious and are likely to become more so, for so long as you attack what I know from experience to be true, I have no alternative but to attack you in return. How long a private friendship can survive such an ordeal I do not know, but at least I did not create the situation."

The last letter that passed between them was written in February 1924 by Doyle. In reply to some request by Houdini for some kind of information, Sir Arthur wrote: "You probably want these extracts in order to twist them in some way against me or my cause." Some time later, Houdini sent a short note inquiring whether Doyle would like a copy of his new book, A Magician Among the Spirits, but got no answer.

Their friendship was over, but the quarrels would continue.

The Last Quarrel

In the summer of 1924, the biggest thing in psychical research was a new medium, powerful as well as attractive, whose name was "Margery" (Mina Crandon). She had entered the Scientific American competition and was considered to be the likeliest winner of the prize - at least until Houdini sat with her. In fact, he was immediately able to discern her true methods and promptly revealed them to the world.

Sir Arthur, who had met Margery and had endorsed her powers, considered Houdini's revelations trash and wrote a newspaper article to tell the story of the investigation, based on correspondence with Dr. Crandon, Margery's husband. The article was meant to discredit Houdini: "It should be the end of him as a Psychic Researcher," he wrote Crandon, "if he could ever have been called one."

When the article was published, Houdini announced that he would "contemplate legal action" against Sir Arthur for slander. "There is not a word of truth in his charges against me," he told a newspaper. "Sir Arthur has been sadly misinformed. Anyhow, I fail to see how he, being 3,500 miles away, qualifies as a judge." He attributed the sharpness of Doyle's attack to Doyle's being "a bit senile . . . and therefore easily bamboozled," and to a desire for revenge, since Houdini had "often expressed the belief that Lady Doyle was not a valid medium." Doyle replied to Houdini's statements by diagnosing an "abnormal frame of mind" that he called "Houdinitis," one symptom of which was the belief "that manual dexterity bears some relation to brain capacity."

What had started as a beautiful friendship, nourished by mutual respect and admiration, ended in sharp words and threats of legal actions.

When Houdini died, on October 31, 1926, however, Doyle put the ill feelings aside and expressed fondness and shock: "I greatly admired him, and cannot understand how the end came for one so youthful. We were great friends. . . . We agreed upon everything excepting spiritualism." In a letter to Bess Houdini, Doyle wrote: "Any man who wins the love and respect of a good woman must himself be a fine and honest man," and went on to describe Houdini as "a loving husband, a good friend, a man full of sweet impulses."