Joseph Dunninger said,"There is one primary rule in the fakery of spirit mediumship. That is to concentrate upon persons who have suffered a bereavement."
- Message No. 1
Bess wrote a letter dated December 16, 1926 to Arthur Conan Doyle. She told about Harry's restless nights as he awoke with "Mama, are you here?" on his lips. She said he never stopped hoping to hear the word "FORGIVE" from his mother. When Ford visited England in 1927 he talked to Doyle a number of times, Did Doyle mention the key word or show the letter to Ford?
A year before the "FORGIVE" message was heard from Houdini's deceased mother and disclosed in a letter by Arthur Ford to Bess Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle mentioned in a 1930 article that Bess had disclosed the word to a
Brooklyn Eagle reporter on March 13, 1927. Bess was quoted as saying that any authentic communication from Mrs. Weiss would have to include the word "FORGIVE". Doyle believed Ford when he said he knew nothing about it. Houdini's mother only called him Erick, never Harry, as Ford delivered in this message. She also never wrote or spoke in English. She wrote and spoke in five other languages. Ford delivered her message in English.
- Message no.2
"ROSEBELLE" was not relayed to Bess by Ford in the Houdini code. Inside the wide gold wedding ring Bess wore were the words of this song, with a miniature likeness of Harry. Bess had shown this unusual inscription to many people. This was hardly a secret. Before Bess sang Rosebelle in delirium, Ford had asked her to remove her wedding ring.
- Message no.3
On page 105 of
Houdini: His Life-Story by Harold Kellock,
from the recollections and documents of Beatrice Houdini, Harcourt, Brace Co., June, 1928, are disclosed the associated 10 letters, 10 key numbers and key words of the Houdini code as it was used in performance by Harry Houdini and wife Bess. Every letter of B E L I E V E, this secret message from beyond the grave communicated by Arthur Ford to Bess Houdini on January 7, 1929, had been available to the general public for a period of
six to seven months if one recognized how to use it. In a statement Bess made to the January 9, 1929
World, Bess said, "I had no idea what combination of words Harry would use and when he sent "BELIEVE" it was a surprise". There is no mention of Kellock and Bess Houdini's public disclosure of the code letters in
The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman.
- Messages no. 2 and no. 3
Mentalist Joseph Dunninger, a close friend of the Houdini family, told reporters Nurse Sophie Rosenblatt, who attended Houdni in his last hours, heard him murmur
Rosebelle-Believe to Bess. This information may have found its way to Arthur Ford. He also pointed out Houdini's old mindreading code was in the Harold Kellock and Beatrice Houdini book. There were other tests devised by Houdini to protect his wife from psychic fakers, one was the opening up a huge pair of handcuffs. Bess Houdini told reporters her husband planned to send messages to Arthur Conan Doyle and Remigius Weiss (Weiss had worked with Houdini to expose psychic fraud.) Both men said they had not planned any messages with Houdini. Bess told the press the only copies of the three messages were locked up in her safety deposit box at the Manufacturers Banks on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. B.M.L. Ernst, Bess Houdini's attorney, told historian Milbourne Christopher that these documents existed only in her imagination.