Diatribune

I believe it is the most famous magic story of all time, assuming any of it is true. It’s the source of a dozen movie plots and even if it’s a lie, it’s still a pretty good story. Ching Ling Foo, “The Original Chinese Conjurer” was the most famous magician to ever come out of China. In 1898, when he brought his show to America, he offered $1,000 to any magician who could duplicate his act. Much to his surprise, shortly thereafter, another magician, under the name Ching Ling Soo, appeared and began doing just that: and also billing him self as the “Original Chinese Conjurer”. Then in January of 1905 Soo began headlining at the Hippodrome Theatre in London. One month later, at the Empire Theatre, just across the street, Foo opened his identical show, advertised with identical posters and the matching tag line, “The Original Chinese Conjurer”. The two began campaigns of trash talk, accusing each other of fraud and name calling that kept the theatre critics working their pencils to the nub, until Foo offered Soo $2,000 for a trick off in front of the press. But on the appointed day Foo was there but, alas, Soo was not. The Weekly Dispatch asked, “Did Foo fool Soo? And can Soo sue Foo?” Alas, those questions were never answered.
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Then, in March of 1918, Soo was performing on the stage of the Wood Green Empire club in London, doing his most famous trick, a variation on “The Bullet Catch”, he called “Condemned to Death by the Boxers”. In this trick audience members loaded rifles, which were then fired at Soo’s chest. Soo caught the bullet in his hand to thunderous applause, or at least he did until March 23, when after the gun fired Soo collapsed. As horrified cast members rushed to his side, Soo was clearly heard announcing, “Oh, my God. Something has happened. Lower the curtain”, in perfect English. He died the next day.
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At the inquest into his death Soo’s widow explained that the rifle was a prop. It was a real gun and capable of firing a real bullet, but with a hidden chamber. Cocking the rifle forced the bullet loaded by an audience member to drop out of the way, clearing space for another bullet made out of paraffin. It would dissolve with the force of the exploding gunpowder, allowing Soo to produce a bullet he had supposedly caught. It was and still is an amazing gag, when it works. But over time Soo had allowed a buildup of gunpowder residue to foul the gun's chamber. On that terrible night the real bullet remained jammed in the chamber and blocked the safe paraffin round from entering. And so when the bullet was fired, Soo was killed. His inquest had also determined that Soo, the other “Original Chinese Conjurer” , was not actually Chinese. His real name was William Robinson. He was from Brooklyn and he had worked as a magician under the name “The Amazing Robinson”, until he had hit upon the idea of grafting onto the success of Ching Ling Foo, the original "Original Chinese Conjurer" - who by the way actually was Chinese but was actually named Chee Ling Qua. The lesson here is that you should never trust a magician, especially if you are another magician.
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Or, evidently, a magician’s assistant. In the afternoon of March 31 of this year a family member in Kochi city, Japan found 52 year old close-up magician Tsutomu Uwano dead on his living room floor. An autopsy revealed his head had been bashed in by a 15 pound vase. Naturally police were curious about his 53 year old assistant (and wife) Yasuko, who was found bloody and lying on the floor next to her husband. She was rushed to the hospital but when doctors there reported that her injuries consisted entirely of blows to the face, probably self inflicted, she became the chief suspect. She later admitted hitting her husband with the vase but denied she wanted to kill him. She was arrested and charged with her husband’s murder, and the real trick will be if she can make the charges disappear.
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It turns out that murder by assistant has a long tradition in the magic community. In 1613 the Great Coullew, a magician in Lorraine, France, was beaten to death by his pissed off assistant. In 1922 in historic Deadwood, South Dakota, the magician “The Black Wizard Of The West” was murdered when his wife switched the blank round in his “Bullet Catch” gag with a real one. And in May of 2008, 25 year old Alex Taylor was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of self-proclaimed black magician and want-a-be cult leader 62 year old George Davis. At one point Taylor explained to police that “George did not enjoy life. He weighed 350 pounds. He couldn’t walk. His knees buckled. He had no social life. He said he wanted to die.” Taylor said that George had asked the young man to kill him, but that Taylor had refused. But Taylor then confessed that he had shot Davis “…right in his third eye.” In fact Taylor shot Davis four times; once in the back and three times from close range in the head.
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But Davis was not a magician so much as a lunatic. In 1964 he invented his own religion centered on a God named Baphomet, who worked through the Earth Mother Gaia and the mechanic Omega. He appears to have used this “religion” as bait for troubled teenagers and had them sign “contracts” of obedience and secrecy. It is not clear if his intention was to exploit them for sex or primarily for exploitation, but what is clear is that if George Davis wasn’t crazy he was looking for people who were, and eventually he found one in Alex Taylor.