When Magic Tricks Went Terribly Wrong

If you're going to compare yourself to the best magician ever, Harry Houdini, you'd better be damn good at what you do. Unfortunately for Joseph Burrus, who according to the LA Times considered himself the next great illusionist, his career came to just as sudden an end as that of his idol.

If you're going to compare yourself to the best magician ever, Harry Houdini, you'd better be damn good at what you do. Unfortunately for Joseph Burrus, who according to the LA Times considered himself the next great illusionist, his career came to just as sudden an end as that of his idol.

On Halloween in 1990, Burrus was preparing to perform a stunt at the Blackbeard's Family Fun Center. Normally, burying yourself alive seems pretty crazy, but the ex-drug addict was doing it for a good cause: the Third Floor drug recovery clinic. While innocent children who were about to grow up really fast watched, Burrus was handcuffed and chained up, put in a see-through coffin, and lowered into a hole 7 feet deep. When they started pouring dirt on his coffin, he complained his chains were choking him. That was dealt with easily enough, but then more dirt and wet cement was dumped on top of him. As soon as they finished, the combined weight crushed the coffin, burying Burrus alive. He was quickly dug up but attempts to revive him failed.

In one way, Burrus did live up to his idol, unfortunately: Houdini also died on Halloween, making Burrus's death tragically ironic.

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