The tragic story of the escape artist who died when he buried himself alive - voila! news

Documenting the death of Joe Burhus - the magician who was buried alive and died (Youtube)

This is the chilling story of the magician who accidentally killed himself while trying the trick of burying himself alive and coming out unscathed.

In the 1980's and early 1990's Joe Burhus emerged as an escape artist, comparing his abilities to those of the great Harry Houdini.

The 32-year-old American wanted to do something that had never been done before - bury himself alive.

Not only is this the biggest fear of many people, but it is a very difficult exercise to perform.

Houdini himself attempted this in 1915, and according to reports from the time he passed out after nearly making it out and was rescued by his crew members.

Borhus, or "Amazing Joe" as many called him, wanted to try it himself.

In a video taken on Halloween in 1992, he is seen preparing to be buried 180 cm deep with his assistants tying his hands. "I consider myself a master of illusions and a magician of escapes," he said at the time, "I think I am the next Houdini and even greater than him." c And is seen entering a glass box and plastic coffin before workers bury him under seven tons of cement and sand.

This is how it looks

At this point everything started to go wrong, and the trick became too real.

According to reports from the time, the coffin he built himself collapsed under the mixture that was poured on him.

His assistant, Suzanne Brewer said: "The Hamlet seemed too heavy and I didn't believe he would be able to get out. The idea was that he would start coming out as soon as they shook the Hamlet, so that he could get out quickly. But when the Hamlet started to sink, I knew we were in trouble."

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Everything happened in front of his parents and children

Joe's parents, Betty and John, watched in horror with his two children as the disaster unfolded before their eyes.

Joe knew how to get out of difficult situations in the past and even performed the exact same trick a year before he left.

This time he performed it to raise funds for a drug treatment clinic, only last time he covered the coffin with dirt and this time he decided to add cement to the mix.

Unfortunately he miscalculated the great weight that Hamlet added to the coffin.

One of the workers there, Shawn Henderson, told the LA Times: "When the truck started moving, everything collapsed. Hamlet broke the coffin and buried him alive."

30 seconds after the collapse, Susan said someone jumped into the closet and tried to dig and get Joe out, but couldn't get to him in time.

He died at the age of 32, exactly 64 years after Houdini was found dead.

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