Harry Houdini Research Paper

Harry houdini was an amazing entertainer, escapist, and magician. He set the standard for magic for all future magicians.

Harry Morey Callahan was born on October 22, 1912 in Detroit, Michigan. When Harry was in high school he didn’t really care about his academics at all. Though he didn’t care much in succeeding in school he eventually attended Michigan State University. He was there at Michigan State for only 5 terms. In 1936, Harry quit school to go and get married with his wife to be, Eleanor Knapp. During the time of the depression he was able to find a job at the Chrysler Motor Company. There at the company he worked as an office clerk. While working as an office clerk in 1938, he purchased his first camera.

But he later escaped from jail and was on the loose. They finally tracked him down after he escaped and was arrested once again in Boston(H.H.Holmes 3). When Holmes was arrested the second time he admitted to the fraud and then was shipped to Philadelphia PA (Larson 2). Holmes was put through several trials until he finally admitted to the crimes he committed. On March 9,1896 Holmes was convicted to be killed after confessing his crimes at the trial (Benzkofer 3). He died on May 7, 1896 after being hanged to his death(Benzkofer 4). After Holmes death, his “Murder Castle” was remodeled into a tourist attraction called “Holmes Horror Castle”. But it burnt down soon after opening to the public(H.H.Holmes 4).

His goal, however, was to murder innocent tourists a lure them into his “Murder Castle,” which was a hotel he opened up in order to charm unexpecting future victims into a trap. Holmes applied a vast amount of ways to kill a victim, one example that was reported was a human kiln, with the potential to reach up to 3000 degrees celsius, and found multiple human remains inside the kiln (Whalen, par. 10). In a way he was an architect like Burnham, he designed this “Murder Castle,” and designed each of his murders to perfection. He even described himself as almost insane, which some artist have no shame of admitting: “‘I was born with the devil in me,' Holmes wrote. '

Houdini was fond of explaining to his fans that by tightening his abdominal muscles he could withstand the hardest punches to the midsection a man could deliver, and one day a college student [punched Harry.] The stomach punches caught Houdini by surprise before he had time to prepare himself, however, resulting in a trauma that ruptured his appendix and ultimately caused his death a few weeks later (Jill 1).

A tremendous serial killer, H.H. Holmes is also known as the “Murder Castle”. Holmes is a mysterious, ruthless and a mischievous fellow for sure. He had a privileged life as a kid and as a young adult. He had his interests in medicine, but as the years passed by he turned dark and had become a serial killer. It’s believed he had killed twenty up to two hundred people. His victims were killed in his hotel a.k.a the “Murder Castle” which was a three story hotel. His victims were mostly women. He usually did experiments on his victims before he killed them. Holmes admitted to killing twenty-seven people to the police. H.H. Holmes turned into a serial killer by nature.

"Day-o! Day-ay-ay-o! Daylight come and we wan' go home," - sung the King of Calypso. Someone may have heard these lyrics and may not know who the singer is. Harold George Bellanfanti Jr, also known as Harry Belafonte is the vocalist behind this song. He’s also a civil rights activist and actor. He was born on March 1st, 1927 in New York City. He was the only child to Mr and Mrs Harold George and Melvine Belafonte. His father came from the caribbean island of Martinique and worked as a chef for the British Royal Navy. His Jamaican mother worked as a dressmaker and house cleaner. At age nine, Harry’s mom sent him to live with her relatives in Jamaica. He later returned to New York and attended George Washington High School. His difficult childhood led him to drop out of high school and joined the U.S. Navy for two years. After leaving the military in 1945, Harry worked at many different places.

H.H. Holmes was a great example to future serial killers. An “expert” like this must have a knowledge of how to murder people and get away with it while, at the same time, get something out of it. Although he was a horrible person and admitted to murdering 27 people and was hung for his crimes, H.H. Holmes was a great example to future serial killers with his fake credibility, dishonest sources of income, manipulative personality, and ability to cover up crimes.

Harry Frederick Harlow was probably best known for his experimentations on monkeys to discover the effect of maternal-separation, what exactly were the dependency needs on a living being, and experiments in social isolation for the subject. His research showed the rest of society the importance of companionship and caregiving to social as well as cognitive development. Speculators believe that part of the reason Harlow was so obsessed with these kinds of studies was because he didn’t have a very good childhood himself. Even at an early age, he claimed to struggle with depression. His mother and father weren’t extremely involved in his life as well. This possibly led him to gain so much interest in the study of essentially love and how it effected other people that you may be close with.

“I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.” This quote was in the confession of Dr. H.H. Holmes when he was caught in 1896. These words are very chilling due to the fact that this man is believed to had killed up to 200 people and not only thinks that he couldn’t help himself but in some ways compares himself to an artist. Holmes’ gruesome murders still inspire ideas in modern day society, such as T.V. shows like American Horror Story. It could be argued that his influence on society would be same as if he were still alive for generations to come. A human monster is a person that is not congenial with the common populace and Holmes is one of the very first recorded in American History. Herman Webster Mudgett, later known as H.H. Holmes, is a human monster created of both nature and nurture, like the fictional character named James March, and all of Holmes’ victims were subjected to the fear of death as they were usually tortured before they were killed.

Houdini is known to be the greatest escape artist man has ever seen, he was very famous for also being seen as a magician. Houdini was really unique for standing out different then all the others. In the text it says “No one before or since has so completely defined the art of escape as Harry Houdini, magician, actor and stage personality.” From that text evidence he was the beginning of something great. His uniqueness left a legacy behind known as the Great Houdini. What stood out most about the great houdini was that people pay to watch him over other escape artist, he was known as a icon, known as a incredible unique magician that was famous for what he did best.

Houdini was a good escape artist because.In the text it states.He coulde escape frome hand cuffas,chains around his arms and hands.Also he can get out of water when he is locked up inside.He also escaped from a barril under water.Houdini also escaped his own death by.Bracking free from a chain sew in front of him.

Erich Weiss or Harry Houdini the name most people know him by was born into this world on March 25, 1874 to a family of four other children later to become seven and two parents that worked as Rabbis. Harry’s family moved to America four years later where they then settled in Appleton Wisconsin. His family then moved to Milwaukee years later and finally settled in New York where Harry would be influenced to begin what he is best known for, Magic. As a young boy Houdini worked as a trapeze artist so he became familiar with other magicians and the show business although he wasn’t famous yet. After he was done with the circus Houdini worked on locks and how to open them without a key. By now Houdini worked as a necktie cutter so he would be able to pay for the lock picking pastime of his. When Houdini was about seventeen years old he began working as a street/stage magician in New York to boost his popularity. It is about this time when Harry changed his name to make a stage name, Harry is just the German version of Erich but Houdini actually came from Harry’s role model French magician Robert Houdin. By the time he was twenty years old Harry now a semi-professional stage magician is working in yet another circus where he began to practice his escape artist tricks and other magic tricks. At about this time Houdini met and married another actor he met at one of his shows Beatrice Raymond later known as Bess Houdini. Houdini worked up his reputation in America from escaping

Holmes Murder Castle was the innovative creation that allowed him to lure in unexpecting visitors to the fair. It consisted of: endless hallways, a windowless third floor, a torture chamber along with a dissecting room in the basement, and so many other ruthless creations. H.H. Holmes Murder Castle is known to be a reflection of his own distorted mind. Which in fact it was given the extensive thought and trouble he went through to make it a reality.

     The title of my book is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It is written by J.K. Rowling. I really liked this book. This book is a fiction book. That of course means it’s not true.