He gained national attention when he claimed to have contacted the dead son of Bishop James Pike in 1967 on network TV.

As a youth he followed a religious pilgrimage that took him to Transylvania College, a Disciples of Christ school in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Sphinx, a conjuring periodical, stated in August 1924 that "he gave one of the finest talks on magic ever heard" in Athol, Massachusetts.

Author Andrew Lycett suggests that Arthur Conan Doyle encouraged a "vulnerable" Bess to believe Ford's claims that he could contact the dead in order "to win an important victory for Spiritualism".

Others such as Milbourne Christopher speculate that the text of the message used a private code between Houdini and his wife that could have easily been broken by Ford or his associates using a number of existing clues.

[12] According to skeptical investigator Gordon Stein the "secret" code had actually been previously published in a book on page 105 of Harold Kellock's biography Houdini: His Life Story and it was likely Ford had read it.

It was alleged by witnesses that Ford told the journalist Rea Jaure at her apartment that Bess had given him the code.

[13] However, Ford denied the allegation and stated that he had been "impersonated" at Rea Jaure's apartment by a paid imposter.