Description

New episode out NOW! We’re shaking things up for the month of December! For the next four weeks you’ll get a brand new episode along the same theme: the game Crack the Case. It’s Casemas 2: Electric Boogaloo!

Crack the Case is a Milton Bradley party game that came out in 1993, where players ask yes or no questions in order to solve a mystery. We’re putting our detective skills to the test!

Katy hosts week one, where we talk about how time works, a weird crime show trope, and the glories of American insurance systems. Katy shares mostly correct information about Houdini’s death, Carrie brings up Murder She Wrote again, Maddy comes up with a new post-confession penance task, and Mack starts right away with the Christmas rum.

Give it a listen! Let us know if YOU solve it before we do!

TW: Death by suicide, unspecified terminal illness, blasphemy

Show Notes:

Most of Katy’s/Maddy’s/Carrie’s Houdini death info was correct but here it is fully corrected and in more detail (sourced from Wikipedia):

• October 22nd, 1926, Montreal: In his dressing room at the Princess Theater, Houdini was punched repeatedly in the stomach by Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead after saying his stomach could endure a lot of punches. Houdini performed his show that night in some pain.
• October 22nd-24th, traveling from Montreal to Detroit: He got worse when traveling and after finally seeing a doctor, he had a fever of 102° and was told he had acute appendicitis. It was advised he should have surgery right away. He did not and kept going.
• October 24th, 1926, Detroit: Despite feeling terrible with a fever now at 104°, Houdini took the stage at the Garrick Theater. He reportedly collapsed, but was revived and continued the show. He finished and was then immediately hospitalized at Grace Hospital in Detroit.
• October 31, 1926, Detroit: Harry Houdini died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix, at 1:26 p.m. in Room 401 at Grace Hospital, aged 52.

It is technically unclear if the stomach punch caused the death - he could have already been suffering from appendicitis or it could have been agitated by the punches - but ultimately his insurance company concluded his death was due to the dressing-room incident.