So Bess may have been married up to four times, one to three times with Houdini and possibly one time to Edward Saint. Īccording to a reliable source at the Magic Castle:īess married her significant other and personal manager, Edward Saint, secretively sometime after Houdini died. And the same was true in those days of a Catholic priest officiating at such a mixed marriage. Weltman, a Jewish man himself, says categorically that no rabbi anywhere back in 1894 would have presided over the nuptials of a Jew and a Catholic. He could find no record anywhere of any registered marriage between Harry Houdini (or Ehrich Weiss) and Willhemina Beatrice Rahner.Īs for the marriage vows repeated before a priest and a rabbi, Weltman, for one regards this as unthinkable. Note: Benjamin Abner’s father was Rabbi Moritz (Morris) Tintner. However, there is no source or date mentioned. The rabbi who married Bess and Harry was the father of the Rabbi (B.A. (Benjamin Abner) Tintner who conducted the funeral services would have been only 14 years of age in 1894 and much too young to have performed any marriages at that time. I wish Rabbi Tintner to say the last farewell over me - the man who married me to the woman I have never ceased to love.” He was a lifelong friend of my own father, Rabbi Weiss. His father, Mortiz Tintner buried my mother. Loui, of Brooklyn.Īccording to a Letter from Houdini in an envelope marked “Not to be opened until after my death”: However, there does not appear to be any such person named Rev. Loui, of Brooklyn.” Note the date of July 22 nd, not June 22 nd.

“Miss Bessie Raymond, the petite soubrette, was married to Mr. McKane was securely behind the bars of Sing Sing!įollowing the civil ceremony on June 22, 1894, Harry and Bess, to please their parents, repeated their marriage vows in separate ceremonies before a Catholic priest and rabbi.Īccording to a story in The Coney Island Clipper, a small weekly tabloid devoted to news of the Island, for the issue of July 28 th, 1894, said in part:

The date as recorded by the bride was June 22, 1894. She thought of a man with whom her father had once had some business – John Y. McKane, “Boss of Coney Island”, a Jewish Rabbi, and a Roman Catholic priest.īess and Houdini wondered how they might get married. She claimed the marriage ceremonies were performed by Johh Y.

“I’m the most married person I know, three times and to the same man”.

Beatrice houdini