On this date in 1918, at the Wood Green Empire in North London, Music Hall illusionist Chung Ling Soo was shot onstage during the Bullet Catching Trick. After his death, the public learned that Soo was actually William Ellsworth Robinson, an American magician impersonating an Asian. The coroner determined that Robinson’s shooting was an accident, but his death inspired wild speculation. In the March 1947 issue of The Conjurer’s Magazine, author Fulton Oursler concocted a crazy tale, filled with fictions and ending with suicide. Crazy sells. A month later, his article was republished in Reader’s Digest magazine, where Oursler was the editor.
