You might need the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes to get to the bottom of these audacious claims. But we mere mortals must rely on the investigative prowess of William Kalush and Larry Sloman, authors of The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero.

In this new biography, published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of Houdini’s death (official cause: ruptured appendix), Kalush and Sloman say he spied on Germany for Scotland Yard, monitored anarchists in Russia and engaged in anti-counterfeiting activities for the US Secret Service.

In return, this “itinerant magician” (as he called himself) went from sleeping on park benches and surviving on potatoes to selling out top theaters in Europe and the United States with his amazing feats.

“Here was a guy willing to get a job as a locksmith and quit show business and all of a sudden he’s huge,” said Larry Sloman. “Once you begin to look at the big picture and start to connect the dots, the stuff begins to fall into place. This guy would be the perfect operative.”

It may have been Houdini’s battles with the spirit world that took the hardest toll on him, the authors say. And they stake much of their claims on archival material supplied by Anna Thurlow, whom they met in Las Vegas at an annual Houdini seance held every Halloween. The 38-year-old Long Island, N.Y., woman happens to be the great-granddaughter of one of the most famous spiritualist mediums in America, Margery (Mina Crandon).

“She had to protect her reputation by proving she was really a medium,” Thurlow said, “and he had to protect his reputation by proving that she was a fraud”.

Ultimately, Houdini won that challenge, and that triumph did not sit well with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He had taken Margery and her husband, Dr Le Roi Crandon, under his wing to proselytise spiritualism, the belief that death was not the end.

“I don’t think Doyle himself was involved” in Houdini’s death, Sloman said. “But he was ruthless and he was a true believer. God knows what he would stop at to get the spiritualist agenda promoted.”

—Spencer Rumsey / LATWP