Random Doomed Magic Acts That Ended In Tragedy (10 items)

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  (#1) Genesta Trapped Himself In A Milk Can

  Royden Joseph Gilbert Raison De La Genesta really had too long of a name to be in the entertainment industry, but nonetheless performed as a Houdini imitator. In 1930, Genesta attempted a famous Houdini trick: the milk-can escape. At that time, milk was transported from farms in human-sized cans. 

  Genesta's milk-can escape involved a secret trap door that allowed him to escape despite the locks on the can's opening. What he didn't know, however, is that the milk can had been dropped en route, and the escape door was dented and no longer functioned. He was submerged in the milk can for three minutes before his wife realized something was wrong. Not used to using the locked door, the crew took another fateful minute to open the padlocks. Genesta momentarily regained consciousness and passed shortly after.
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  (#2) Charles Rowan Was Run Over In A Straitjacket

  Back in 1930, Charles Rowan, AKA "Karr the Magician," performed a stunt where he strapped himself into a straitjacket and had a car accelerate toward him at 45 mph and from 200 yards away as he executed his escape. Rowan had actually performed the trick before, but this time, he was a fraction of a second too late.

  The car's right wheel struck him, resulting in him passing in front of a large crowd of spectators, including children. Prior to the stunt, Karr exonerated the driver in writing from any responsibility in the unlikely event of his death. 
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  (#3) Madame DeLinsky Bit The Bullet

  In 1820, a Polish magician lost his wife and unborn child while performing the infamous "bullet catch" trick. During the act, his wife and assistant, Madame DeLinsky, was fired at while on stage. Six soldiers were invited onstage to load their guns. To load the rifles, the men had to bite open the cartridge to add the gunpowder in the barrel. Then they could insert the rest of the cartridge. 

  The soldiers were paid "shills" - they had previously been instructed to actually bite the entire bullet, allowing them to fire blanks instead. One of the soldiers got a bit of stage fright and accidentally loaded his gun with the bullet. He then fatally shot the pregnant Madame DeLinsky on stage.
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  (#4) The Great Lafayette Was Trapped In A Burning Theatre

  In 1911, "The Great Lafayette" - otherwise known as Sigmund Neuberger - was performing one of his most famous acts called "The Lion's Bride," in Edinburgh. In the trick, Lafayette was to be sacrificed to his giant 400-pound lion on stage. At the last second, however, Lafayette was to switch places and reveal himself to be in costume as the lion. Much of his stage decor was made up of oriental tenting and Chinese paper lanterns, and one such lantern caught fire during the act.

  The entire stage became engulfed in flames. Lafayette was so paranoid about his tricks that three of the four exits backstage were locked, leaving only one exit open to his large cast and crew. Eleven people died, including Lafayette, who reportedly escaped and then returned to the blaze to save his beloved horse.

  After the cremation of his body, Lafayette was again found under a trap door beneath the stage. It was only then that Lafayette's secret was revealed: he used a body double, and the real Lafayette had been stuck under the stage during the fire.
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  (#5) Vivian Hensley Swallowed A Razor Blade

  Vivian Hensley wasn't a professional magician - he was actually a dentist from Australia. But that didn't stop him from performing a few tricks to his wife and son in 1938, specifically the trick that involved swallowing a razor blade. In Hensley's original stunt, he pretended to drop the blade down his throat while secretly stashing it up his sleeve. But he slipped up and accidentally swallowed the instrument.

  Hensley's doctor fed him some cotton wool and performed an operation to attempt to locate the razor. Surgeons weren't able to find it, and Hensley passed from his injuries a few days later.
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  (#6) The 'Amazing' Joe Burrus Was Buried Alive

  Magician Joe Burrus wanted to outdo magic legend and personal hero, Harry Houdini, who had nearly died while performing a "buried alive" trick. So, on Halloween 1990 - the anniversary of Houdini's death - Burrus attempted his own version of the trick at an amusement park. He was handcuffed, wrapped in chains, locked inside of a plastic and glass coffin, and lowered into a 7-foot hole - at which point, his crew threw seven tons of dirt and wet cement on top of the coffin. 

  Before he could even attempt his escape, the weight of the mixture broke the coffin and collapsed onto Burrus, who immediately passed from his injuries.
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  (#7) Chung Ling Soo Was Shot While On Stage

  As another victim of the "bullet catch," Chung Ling Soo was shot and killed during his performance of "Condemned to Death by Boxer," in 1918. The performer failed to properly clean out the gun, and residual gunpowder ended up firing an actual bullet. This famous Chinese magician wasn't actually Chinese at all. He was originally a magician's assistant named William Robinson, who had an awkward stage presence.

  His solution was to copy the act of a Chinese magician named Ching Ling Foo. He then used the persona as a way to avoid speaking during performances and even continued the act off-stage, using an interpreter everywhere he went. When he was shot, he broke character and spoke out in English for the first time, saying: "Oh my God. Something’s happened. Lower the curtain." 
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  (#8) Jeff Rayburn Hopper Escaped His Chains But Drowned

  In 1984, Jeff Rayburn Hopper was rehearsing a trick for his afternoon show in Winona Lake, IN. His trick involved escaping from chains while submerged in open water. He jumped into the water about 100 yards from shore and actually managed to get all of his chains off. However, he started popping up to the surface yelling to his assistant for help.

  High winds at the time made rescuing him impossible, and he drowned in just 6 feet of water. 
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  (#9) Balabrega Blew Up Himself And His Assistant

  Johan Miller, a Swedish magician who went by the stage name "Balabrega," was touring in Brazil in 1900, when he bought a trick from a fellow performer known as "The Moth and the Flame." The act used pyrotechnics to make assistants - six women dressed like moths - vanish into a candle flame. The flame required a gas supply, which wasn't readily available in Latin America at the time, so as an alternative, he purchased gas bags of acetylene that he could easily transport to any stage he chose.

  When Balabrega was setting up for the show, one of the bags exploded. Balabrega and his assistant died in the explosion, as witnessed by the cast and crew. The accident also severely injured his manager. 
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  (#10) Arnold Buck Was Shot In The Head With A Nail

  Magician Arnold Buck's claim to notoriety is that he's also on the list of "bullet-catch" victims, but this time, it was an audience member who was to blame. In 1840, Buck invited a volunteer on stage at the Queen's Theatre in London to shoot the gun for his performance. When Burrus refused to reload the weapon and present the alleged bullet, the volunteer spitefully inserted some nails into the barrel of the gun. The prank-turned-murder ended with Buck's unexpected death. 

  The assistant showed the real bullet to the audience, announcing that something else was put into the barrel. 

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