In Washington, D.C., he escaped from Murderers' Row where he proceeded to open the doors of eight other cells and shuffle the prisoners around, so that each was found in a different cell. In Liverpool, he freed himself from three pairs of handcuffs, unlocked his cell door, and the doors of all the other cells in a local prison. Houdini performed similar escapes throughout the world. For this act, he was presented with a certificate signed by the Chief Constable, as a witness to the amazing event. In this short time, he had gotten out of the cell, opened another cell to retrieve his clothing, unfastened all of the remaining cells in the corridor and burst through the locked iron gate. To the surprise of everyone present, Houdini joined them in the bottom corridor a mere five minutes after being locked in. At Houdini's request, all the cells in the corridor were also locked and the iron gate at the foot of the steps was secured with a seven-lever lock. His cell was thoroughly searched and the door triple locked. He was marched off to the cell and stripped of his clothes, which were placed in an adjoining cell, which was then triple locked. In 1904, Houdini presented himself to the Chief Constable to arrange a private display during the week, however, the Commander unexpectedly asked him to try what he could do right then and there. His files contain hundreds of letters from police chiefs attesting that the escapes were real. He escaped in such a swift, surprising manner, that the Superintendent was amazed. While in Europe, he visited Scotland Yard and escaped from a pair of regulation handcuffs placed on his wrists by the Superintendent himself. He gained his reputation as a "prison breaker" when playing various towns in the United States. Although the Handcuff Act rocketed Houdini to fame, what triggered such success were his series of "jail breaks" which he accomplished in order to prove himself the "elusive American" that he claimed to be.
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