Continue Reading Below Advertisement

Scientists weren't even sure exactly what this hulking turtle-fish was, so naturally everyone's first thought was to stuff a 40-year-old magician inside it to see if he could claw his way back out. Houdini did the only thing a reasonable adult in his position could do: He climbed inside the decaying seabeast.

The monster, which was so large that it took a dozen stagehands to drag it out, was flipped onto its "back" and sliced open. Houdini, handcuffed and fastened with leg irons, then jumped inside. He managed to escape a few minutes later, but not before breathing in a copious amount of arsenic, which the creature had been soaked in to prevent decomposition, presumably by someone who had bet against Houdini. He immediately passed out and nearly died, which technically would've still counted as a successful escape because Houdini was outside the monster at the time.