Billing himself as the “King of Handcuffs” Houdini soon hit the big time and in 1900 left for a tour of Europe. Through enthusiastic self promotion he returned as a truly international star.
With his reputation firmly established, Houdini turned his attention to writing and began to take an interest in spiritualism. By the early 1920’s he was devoting much of his time to exposing fraudulent mediums.
All we can say with certainty is that his demise was due to peritonitis. Whether a punch in the stomach during a previous act hastened his end is still open to debate.
